Ease Reading-Find Your Next Favorite Book

Hot Search

Hamish Macbeth #14

Death of a Scriptwriter

m.c. beaton

... Show More
From the author of the Agatha Raisin television series...DEATH OF A SCRIPTWRITER: A Hamish Macbeth Mystery HOLLYWOOD IN THE HIGHLANDS
With the lovely Priscilla Halburton-Smythe away in London, Lochdubh Constable Hamish Macbeth pines for company during the long Scottish winter. He gets his wish -- and more -- when a troupe of flashy, urbane filmmakers clamors into the nearby town of Drim. Before long bedlam erupts around their make-believe mystery ...and culminates in the sudden appearance of one very real corpse.
The initial suspect in the killing is one Patricia Martyn-Broyd, the aging mystery writer furious that her musty old cozies are getting a risque face-lift in their TV reincarnation. Yet, going behind the scenes, Hamish soon finds a town full of locals bitten by the movie bug and a cast of quarreling show business types, all harboring their own secrets, lies, and hidden agendas. And as the culprit strikes again, Hamish must quickly find the right killer -- or script the wrong finale to a show gone murderously awry.

198 pages, Paperback

First published June 1,1998
Series
Hamish Macbeth
Places
sutherland scotland, 

This edition

Format
198 pages, Paperback
Published
June 1, 1999 by Warner Books
ISBN
9780446606981
ASIN
0446606987
Language
English
Characters More characters

More editions

About the author

Profile Image for m.c. beaton

m.c. beaton

... Show More
Like her on Facebook!

Learn more on her website!

Marion Chesney Gibbons
aka: Ann Fairfax, Jennie Tremaine, Helen Crampton, Marion Chesney, Charlotte Ward, Sarah Chester.

Marion Chesney was born on 1936 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK, and started her first job as a bookseller in charge of the fiction department in John Smith & Sons Ltd. While bookselling, by chance, she got an offer from the Scottish Daily Mail to review variety shows and quickly rose to be their theatre critic. She left Smith's to join Scottish Field magazine as a secretary in the advertising department, without any shorthand or typing, but quickly got the job of fashion editor instead. She then moved to the Scottish Daily Express where she reported mostly on crime. This was followed by a move to Fleet Street to the Daily Express where she became chief woman reporter. After marrying Harry Scott Gibbons and having a son, Charles, Marion went to the United States where Harry had been offered the job of editor of the Oyster Bay Guardian. When that didn't work out, they went to Virginia and Marion worked as a waitress in a greasy spoon on the Jefferson Davies in Alexandria while Harry washed the dishes. Both then got jobs on Rupert Murdoch's new tabloid, The Star, and moved to New York.

Anxious to spend more time at home with her small son, Marion, urged by her husband, started to write historical romances in 1977. After she had written over 100 of them under her maiden name, Marion Chesney, and under the pseudonyms: Ann Fairfax, Jennie Tremaine, Helen Crampton, Charlotte Ward, and Sarah Chester, she getting fed up with 1714 to 1910, she began to write detectives stories in 1985 under the pseudonym of M. C. Beaton. On a trip from the States to Sutherland on holiday, a course at a fishing school inspired the first Constable Hamish Macbeth story. They returned to Britain and bought a croft house and croft in Sutherland where Harry reared a flock of black sheep. But Charles was at school, in London so when he finished and both tired of the long commute to the north of Scotland, they moved to the Cotswolds where Agatha Raisin was created.

Readers also enjoyed

Community Reviews

Rating(4 / 5.0, 100 votes)
5 stars
35(35%)
4 stars
34(34%)
3 stars
31(31%)
2 stars
0(0%)
1 stars
0(0%)
100 reviews All reviews
Profile Image for Kimberly .
AlienCrixus
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
... Show More
I actually like this book series by the author. Periodically I will pick one up. I have not read them in order or all of them. Hamish McBeth is a fun character as the constable. A bit stubborn, maybe lazy too but smart. He always figures out the mystery at the end, who done it!

The characters are always quirky. I can just imagine the setting from the author’s descriptions.

I did have a hard time getting into the characters who are involved in the murder mystery. One thing the author does is she can really make some of her characters very distasteful. She doesn’t mince words and isn’t afraid to show the real truth of human nature.

For a shorter book it is a quick read maybe not as satisfying as a lengthy and in-depth mystery but just the right touch for something lighter.
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
JulianGesicht
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
... Show More
If anything I think this book offers the best view of the authors personality. I may be reading too much into this, but Death of a Scriptwriter was written around the same time the Hamish Macbeth series was being turned into a TV show and the authors own frustrations seem to shine through. In many ways this may be the most personal book in the series, yet that kind of passion for the subject seems a bit weighty.
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
StupidRat
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
... Show More
5/7/22 - Re-read: anyone who has had a favorite book adapted for television or movie will appreciate the agonies of seeing a beloved story...totally trashed. The experience that the author goes through here, seeing her beloved creation warped out of all recognition feels a little...personal. I did like all the twists and turns, but the murderer here is too obvious ;).
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
PoeticJustice
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
... Show More
Überraschend, aber dringend nötig: Bei dieser Geschichte hat Beaton endlich mal eine andere "Formel" gewählt, die wir so bis jetzt (glaub ich) noch nicht hatten. Es geht hauptsächlich um eine Autorin, deren Krimi verfilmt wird, sowie um die Geschehnisse rund um das Filmteam, die Darsteller und den Drehort samt Bewohnern. Die Handlung erstreckt sich diesmal nicht über ein Wochenende oder einen Monat, sondern über ca. ein Jahr und auch Hamish wird zunächst nur sparsam eingesetzt, bis er dann durch den Mord wieder zur Hauptfigur des Buches wird.

Eventuell verarbeitet die Autorin ihr eigenes Leben als Schreiberin und ihre Erfahrungen mit Buchverfilmungen in dieser Geschichte, vielleicht auch nicht. Auf jeden Fall ist sie dabei wieder gehässig wie eh und je und auf so gut wie jedem Charakter wird mal zu recht, mal zu unrecht rumgehackt. Vorurteile hier, Eifersucht da, etc. etc. - typisch Beaton eben. Das ist etwas, das ich an ihrem Erzählstil nicht mag, aber damit muss man leben, wenn man ihre kleinen Schottland-Krimis lesen möchte.

Alles in allem wieder eines der besseren Bücher der Reihe (auch wenn ich es nicht mehr sehen kann, dass Frauen aus Dorf X wegen dem Auftauchen von Person Y anfangen sich die Haare zu färben und Makeup zu tragen - gähn!).
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
Azra_Satou
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
... Show More
So many of the characters who die in this series seem to "come from" somewhere else into the rather gloomy and wild area of northern Scotland. And always there is the conflict between Hamish Macbeth and his superior, Blair--and in this book, we learn of an equally obnoxious police Lieutenant Lovelace. As always, Hamish has his fling with romance and as usual, nothing comes of it. And in the end, the mystery is solved by Hamis Macbeth's great intuition and good investigation.
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
Gin-iro
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
... Show More
The Hamish Macbeth series are set in the Highlands of Scotland and are traditional police stories about the village policeman, the locals and their life. This one was about a film crew filming a tv show in the village when 2 murders happen and Hamish goes about finding the murderer even though he has been taken off the case. This was an enjoyable story, easy to read but very basic. Probably not suited to everyone's taste as they are very tame - but myself, loving everything Scottish find them very entertaining.
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
Zeenogre
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
... Show More
I think I'm sick of this small town mystery with quirky characters genre. At least done straight this way -- it feels the wirter is sleepwalking through these things.

The Sookie Stackhouse series is a better take on this -- Dead Until Dark is a nice twist on the genre -- if you're looking for a readable evolution of the genre, try that out instead.
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
Apricck
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
... Show More
This just wasn't my cup of tea. I found the intermittent use of dialect confusing and unnecessary. The murder mystery was a bit juvenile, expected, and not very thought out. And even though I was able to guess the ending (mainly because it was the obvious answer), the author didn't give the reader a lot of clues to help them figure it out. I will not be reading any more of this series. But it got a 2 star because I did finish it and I could see others liking it. I guess I just prefer something with a little more grit.
0 0 Reply
Leave a Review
You must be logged in to rate and post a review. Register an account to get started.