I have read some other Hamish Macbeth novels by M. C. Beaton, so when I saw it was Barnes and Noble's Serial Read for January 2018, I started to read it immediately.
#19 did not disappoint as this is a cozy mystery with 2 deaths that Hamish must investigate. This may be read as a stand-alone.
I recommend it to readers who prefer cozy mysteries.

An easy read, although not compelling. Overall, I prefer the Hamish Macbeth series to the Agatha Raisin ones, but not sure I will read any more of these.

I listened to this book once, then had an unexpected trip come up and it was what I had available, so I heard it again, all within two weeks. It was just as good the second time! I love these characters. The dry humor is very entertaining, especially when mentioning lesbians, and an innocent schoolgirl responds "they didn't look Greek to me." :-) And the old biddies finding "thong" underwear, and telling the owner of them to "get a respectable pair of knickers that are tight at the knee." LOL The only criticism is that the conclusion leaves you hanging, and I had to listen twice to make sure I wasn't missing something; I wasn't - it just STOPS.

A friend of Hamish Macbeth's love interest Priscilla named Jenny Ogilvie comes from London intent on stealing her friend's guy. She arrives as Hamish and newspaper reporter Elspeth Grant are investigating poison pen letters that several people have received. Then the postmistress is found hanging with one of the letters at her feet. Hamish's superiors think it is a clear case of suicide, but things don't add up to him and he suspects murder (said with a wonderful Scottish lilt!). Will he, with help from Elsbeth and occasionally Jenny, be able to solve this murder before another one occurs?

Another enjoyable read in the Hamish Macbeth mystery series. I am really enjoying this series.

Going to try something new. This book is available as a serial read on Barnes and Noble. So you are allowed a bit of the story to read each day of the month. I have read a few of the author's other books so I thought I would give this a try. We shall see how this goes. Hope it is worth the torture of waiting to read the next part. Well it did not take a month to read the whole book and it was entertaining but I struggled with having to stop at a good point and waiting until the next day to read it.

Some one in down is sending out nasty letters to their neighbors. They are silly overall except they are worrying Hamish McBeth. As constable , McBeth is concerned that the poison pen letters might lead to something worse. Sadly, he is correct. The post mistress is found dead hanged in her apartment and their is a poison pen letter laying on the ground before her. Constable McBeth needs to track down a killer but his personal life is complicating everything. A friend of his former fiance has come to town and she seems to be attracted to Hamish. So tracking down a killer becomes more complicated when Hamish is dodging women and he still does not know if the nasty letters caused the death of the postmistress until another death occurs. Who is writing these Letters? Is the writer of these nasty letters the killer? if not, who Is? Constable Hamish McBeth has his plate full tracking down the answers to this problem but only if he does not get bogged down by his personal life.

This book was enjoyable. I am not sure if I would really give it a 4 star rating but since I cannot give it a 3.5 star review up to 4 it goes. If you noticed, this is the 19th book in the McBeth series. I felt as if I was missing some parts of the overall story by jumping in the middle of the series. The personal history and recurring characters already had been established and while I got the general background I still felt like I was missing something. McBeth is a good character in solving murder but as a man he is annoying. He seemed clueless that a girl shows up in down for no reason except to catch his attention. Hamish seems likes he is attracted to a news reporter friend but he is also pining for his ex-girlfriend who is now engaged to another man and lives away. Since I do not know all the personal history between these people, I can only go on my impressions from this story and my impression is this man needs to take a good hard look at how he feels about each woman in his life and get his act together in his love life. I enjoyed the mystery and overall the characters in this book but I feel I would have enjoyed it better if I had read the series from the beginning. So I recommend if you like a cozy mysteries, it is a good read but starting at the beginning of the series might be best if you like knowing your characters.

Classic Hamish Macbeth. Along with the new reporter, Elspeth Grant they try to identify the sender of poison pen letters. Leading inevitably to death, Hamish is stumped by the clues. Complicating the case is the sudden appearance of Jenny, a Londoner who is friends with Priscilla Haliburton-Smith. She has an starry eyed image of Hamish and seeks to develop a relationship with him to silence Pricilla's reminiscences about Hamish and their adventures together. As usual, the highlanders with their distinctive ways are a difficult lot to get to open up. They keep themselves to themselves!

I was curious about M. C. Beaton's Hamish Macbeth series after reading a few of the Agatha Raisin books. I also was curious about how she would treat the subject of poison pen letters and how it might compare to "The Moving Finger" by Agatha Christie. This is not a bad book, not at Christie's level, but enjoyable. My only disappointment is in Hamish Macbeth himself. He is not a very interesting character to me. I fail to see what all these ladies (at least three in this book) could see in him. He's not possessed of great looks, and though he is a fine detective, he doesn't seem to have a real personality. I liked the mystery, but not most of the people. I don't see myself reading any more of this series.

2.5 Stars! I love Cozy mysteries, but this one had very little mystery and pages and pages full of stupid characters. Every single person (except for the main character) was either stupid or incredibly mean and self-centered.
This is the first book I’ve read in this series, so I don’t know if I just picked a bad one or this is just the way things are in these books. I really liked Hamish, but that’s about it :(

A decent story for the series. It was nice to have someone else than Elspeth for Hamish to interact with, but Jenny is used to bring Priscilla into yet another entry. I’d like to see more upcoming crimes where Priscilla isn’t mentioned at all so we could get a chance to know some of the other people in nearby areas. The end was fun though, who doesn’t love some gossip with our favorite villagers!

was really pleased to read a "hamish macbeth" whodunit again - a few twists, some humor, and the wonderful atmosphere of the Highlands

Excellent,quirky and page turning. Nothing more than you'd expect from M C Beaton.
Lochdubh is being plagued by a series of nasty, anonymous letters, one of the recipients is found hanged. Hamish Macbeth thinks it's murder - his superiors think it is suicide.
With his usual dogged style and a twinkle in his eye Hamish battles to find the culprits.
Cozy read which will keep you reading.

Thoroughly enjoyable ~ great mental picture of the Highland scenery ~ excellent detective work ~ Hamish Macbeth at his red headed best!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)