Fini à l’aube (sommeil perturbé oblige), quel plaisir de retrouver ce genre d’univers. Après avoir quasiment lu l’intégralité des Agatha Raisin, je me suis rendue compte que madame Beaton avait écrit des enquêtes avec un certain Hamish (drôle de coïncidence).

Je me suis lancée avec l’appréhension de ne pas m’attacher autant à Hamish qu’à Agatha mais finalement c’est venu me chercher ! C’est même mieux construit, l’intrigue est plus détaillé et le tout fini comme un Hercule Poirot, c’est top !

OK l'intrigue policière est pauvrette mais ce n'est clairement pas ce qu'on attend des livres de M.C. Beaton. J'ai vite pris mon parti de découvrir ses romans pour leur ambiance et la brochette de personnages insolites qu'ils ont tendance à proposer. Rien que pour ça, le voyage vaut le coup d'œil !

Après une Agatha Raisin pittoresque, nous rencontrons un Hamish Macbeth particulièrement affable et a priori benêt. Mais qu'on ne se trompe pas sur l'énergumène dont la patience et la logique sont hautement plus ciselées que les apparences laisseraient supposer... Quiconque croise ce policier débonnaire au détour d'un loch ou dans la verte campagne écossaise aurait tout lieu de conclure qu'il serait vain de lui confier une enquête. L'homme n'est pas antipathique mais assez intrusif dans la vie des gens. Les stagiaires du séjour de pêche organisé par les Cartwright en font d'ailleurs l'heureuse expérience et anticipent souvent le sandwich ou la tasse de café dès qu'il s'approche nonchalamment de leur groupe. Eux aussi sous-estiment ses talents de fin limier... Quand le crime est commis, tous ont néanmoins le profil idéal pour être le coupable et ne perçoivent plus alors l'ingérence de Macbeth dans leurs petites affaires de manière aussi complaisante.

Le dénouement se déroule en clin d'œil à Agatha Christie même si la démonstration est moins grandiloquente et beaucoup plus expéditive car l'auteure n'a vraiment pas pris le temps de peaufiner son intrigue. Hop hop hop les faits sont exposés, les indices dévoilés, les dés lancés, les masques vont tomber. Et le rideau aussi.
Fin de la représentation.

Une petite lecture sympathique... certes pas révolutionnaire et moins piquante que la série Agatha Raisin. Toutefois je suis séduite par l'esprit vintage et pantouflard de cette échappée écossaise. Affaire à suivre dans Qui va à la chasse !

Ein netter kleiner Krimi für zwischendurch.

A cozy little murder mystery novel which launches the Hamish Macbeth series.

I’d heard of the character before, but this was my first introduction.
Set in the Scottish Highlands, busy-body Lady Jane Winters is found murdered and there’s lots of suspects!

It’s a fun easy read, the dialogue amongst the characters are vividly brought to life.
With a short page count, it’s easy to breeze through.
The mystery itself isn’t going to tax any reader. But with some wonderfully eccentric characters, you’re happy to spend time in their company.
Constable Mcbeath is so likeable, I’ll be returning to this series regularly.

Idyllisch ist es im schottischen Lochdubh. Das Schlimmste was Police Constable Hamish Mcbeth auf seinen Schreibtisch bekommt, sind Fälle von Wilddieberei. Das ändert sich jedoch plötzlich, als einer der Teilnehmer des hiesigen Angelkurses, gefesselt und ermordet aus dem Wasser gezogen wird. Nun hatte sich die Tote nicht gerade bei den anderen Anglerfreunden beliebt gemacht, aber reichte die Wut eines Einzelnen aus, die Dame zu den Fischen schlafen zu schicken? Hamish nimmt gelassen seine Ermittlungen auf, die von der zur Hilfe gerufenen Polizei behindert wird, denn diese sieht in ihm nur einen popeligen Dorfpolizisten. Sie könnten nicht weiter von der Wahrheit entfernt sein, denn der Police Constable hat den Fall schon längst gelöst, während sie noch den falschen Verdächtigen verhören.

Für mich gehört dieses Buch zu der Kategorie Wohlfühlkrimi. Ein tolles Natursetting, die wunderschönen Highlands, ein beschauliches Örtchen und ein eher unaufgeregter Ermittler. Nebenbei konnte ich sogar noch mit raten, wer Lady Jane ermordet hat. Ich finde Hamish Mcbeth grundsympathisch, auch wenn er ziemlich selten zu Wort kommt in einem Krimi, in dem er die Hauptperson spielen sollte. Aber was ich über ihn erfahren habe, machte ihn sehr liebenswert. Er lebt eher bescheiden, da er das Geld seiner Familie schickt und hat ein Auge auf die Tochter des reichen Landbesitzers geworfen. Oder vielmehr sie auf ihn. Viel öfter als der Ermittler kommt die naive kleine Stadtpflanze Alice zu Wort. Unglücklich in ihren Chef verliebt, ist sie auf diesem Angeltrip nur, um ihm etwas zu beweisen. Hier verliebt sie sich in den einzigen jungen Mann der auch nur annähernd in ihrem Alter ist. Sie träumt schon von Hochzeit, während er nur ein Abenteuer sucht. Der Leser sieht das unglückliche Ende für Alice regelrecht kommen und möchte ihr manchmal ob ihrer Naivität gegen das Schienbein treten. Lady Jane ist eine giftige Natter und mir tat es kein bisschen leid, dass sie ermordet wurde, auch wenn sehr spät in der Geschichte. Über die Hälfte musste ich ohne Leiche auskommen, aber bei so vielen Teilnehmern des Angelkurses, musste erst einmal das Beziehungsgeflecht gewoben werden. Ich freue mich sehr auf ein Wiedersehen mit Hamish in Lochdubh und darauf seine Kollegin Agatha Raisin aus der anderen Krimireihe der Autorin kennenzulernen.

Schlechtes Wetter, eine Heizung, eine Tasse Tee und ein Hamish Mcbeth Roman sind die Zutaten für einen perfekten Lesenachmittag.

An okay read. Can't say I particularly liked any of the characters, but might read another in the series were I to happen across one.

3.5 ⭐️ I prefer Agatha Raisin but I’ll give Hamish another try.

I thoroughly enjoy this series with his quirky characters, ironic since of humor, and romantic comedy. These books are set in the Highland area of Scotland, and I prefer to read them in audio rather than with text for that reason. For those of us who use computerized speech to read text, it Mangels a lot of the names, places, and idioms used in the books. I have read about half of the series with text and the other half with speech. This is one series where reading the first couple of books is important because later plots build on things you learn in the first two or three books.

This is the first of the Hamish Macbeth mysteries which I recall enjoying a lot when I sampled them long ago.

As with the Agatha Raisin series by the same author, this gets off to a slow start with more personality than mystery. I don't mind that, obviously, or I wouldn't be listening to the audiobook. Sometimes one wants light reading/listening and I'm willing to wait for the series to rev up, as has been rewarding with the Agatha Raisin books.

I especially enjoyed Hamish's personality. He's got basic common sense and watching him apply it shows how the stories will sparkle once we get more of his point of view, which I trust later books will do. He's also a bit like Miss Marple in that a lot of suspects remind him of local townspeople and situations which help him sort through investigations.

I will say that if I never hear about fishing again that would be just fine. In its own mild way, this is the Moby Dick of cozy mysteries ... so much fishing, so little accomplished. I did admire the way the fishing school provided a closed environment, a la the traditional country house murder mystery.

UPDATE
2/3 of the way through the second book in the series, Death of a Cad, I can see that this one is really superfluous and not nearly as good as the second one, which could easily be used to begin the series as a whole. I myself would just ignore this one.

Macbeth and the Gossip Columnist
Review of the Blackstone Audio Inc. audiobook edition (2016) of the St. Martin's Press hardcover original (1985)

After discovering M.C. Beaton's Hamish Macbeth cozy mystery series due to the Estonia cameo in Death of Yesterday, I started to seek out the earlier books by finding several at Toronto's Sleuth of Baker Street. I enjoyed those and found them to be an especially delightful diversion during this continuing pandemic. My next plan was to go back and read the series in order. I then discovered the rather terrific bonus that most of the books are available free on Audible Plus, a service that I had previously been underwhelmed by (some early attempts with longer books had audio difficulties, with book narrations freezing in midstream). Beaton's shorter books (usually 4 to 5 hours on audio) seem to be perfect for this medium.

Death of a Gossip is the first of the series and establishes several of the ongoing cast of characters in the fictional town of Lochdubh (pronounced Lock-Doo) in the Scottish Highlands. Gossip was inspired by author Beaton attending a fishing school similar to the fictional one in the novel. The guests of the expedition find themselves tormented by Lady Jane, a vacationing gossip columnist who savours using her trivia gossip knowledge to annoy others. Predictably, she is murdered in the course of the trip, and local constable Macbeth is called on to solve the crime.

A nasty old fat tabloid reporter reveals others' guilty secrets. Which victim was provoked enough to strangle and drown her? I remembered who and why, but not the reveal, and savor re-reading descriptions. Much is from the viewpoint of the naive secretary seduced by the blue-blood playboy, rather than hero, Scottish highland cop Hamish Macbeth.

Reader may grin, snicker, and sigh in sympathy with the not-so stereotypes. Outwardly slow simple, inwardly clever cunning, generous Macbeth also poaches, insults, and hides under his beloved's covers. Distinctive shock of red hair on six foot gangly lanky scarecrow somehow attracts a bevy of susceptible beauties, even icy cool blond Priscilla Haliburton Smythe.

The series are holidays for me, inspired by author's own visits, quick reads full of action, mystery https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..., and lively eccentrics https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..., like Chesney-Beaton's previous so-called romances https://www.goodreads.com/review/show....

No one could be more surprised than I, to dislike a novel I looked forward to. I squirmed through this one. I have every intention to give the next novel a chance. Marion C. Beaton is a beloved ‘cozy mystery’ author and it’s no joke, I collected about 20 of her books! I would be relieved to turn my reaction around. I landed up with a few first editions!

Marion wanted to portray a peaceful, idle policeman, so his input would make shockwaves. The misfortune is, in this attempt; Hamish came out as a moocher whom no one liked. Adding to the sour note, it took ages to establish a protagonist. We started with a fishing class couple, moved among pupils, and I have no interest in fishing. This theme wasn’t a backdrop but an activity cast to the forefront. Lastly, I dislike the storytelling method that passes a viewpoint between a bunch of people, instead of sticking with the hero. However I have gotten on board with that several times in literature because a subject was compelling, or I loved the characters. I couldn’t stand any one of these! I found the girl ‘looking for love’, stupidest of all.

The scenery was beautiful and people who like fishing would savour the details. However this is a series that wanted to be categorized with mysteries but it took 100 pages to get anywhere near one. I think Marion wanted to write slapstick humour and that’s perfectly valid. The mystery didn’t gel; dropping death into a book with no profound plot. When we discover the motive; it’s far away and nothing that should precipitate killing. Your reaction to the outcome should never be “so what” or “that’s it?”! It’s regrettable there was nothing for me to latch onto among these pages.