I am really liking this series - this is my third read of the Hamish series and each book surprises me with how much I enjoy the Scottish Highlands setting, the small town cast of characters, and the honorable, down to earth, and loyal copper Hamish Macbeth, who seems to march to a different drummer. I love the way he interacts with local people and deducts the murderous intents of all the suspects-what a great guy to have a conversation with! Looking forward to the next book of Hamish!

For some reason, I keep spacing these out for a long time... long enough that I forget that I have them. While I really like hardcore murder mysteries and thrillers (with one or two exceptions,) I like these because the main character, Hamish Macbeth, is so small town easy going. Ha, does that make sense? He gets in there, talks to everyone involved, finds clues, and gets the job done, so that the bumbling chief can take the credit. Not my normal fare, but I really did like this one, and would recommend it to just about anyone. <><

I was looking for a cozy mystery to take with me on vacation. I was completely relaxing, brought no work with me, not even my computer -- only my phone so I downloaded these two stories via Audible. I got sucked into the highlands of Scotland and the vivid atmosphere of the countryside and then the murder mysteries that kept my interest and kept me transported.

How much did I like this book? Well, not 5 stars like a book that changes my life or anything, but I downloaded more of the Hamish MacBeth stories and listened to them nonstop for my entire summer vacation. Now I'm back home and still finishing them up. Can't stop. They're like potato chips.

My first foray into the delightful and deadly wilds of Northwest Scotland and its cranky crofters and anti-English sentiment. Hamish Macbeth is not a high-up at Scotland Yard, but a local constable with a feel for subtle questioning and for the politics of his department. You can almost smell the sheep and the heather.

It took a while to actually get to the murder in this book. Hamish is banished to another village as holiday cover. It's a village that doesn't like outsiders (even if you've lived there for years, you're still an outsider). One outsider - Mr Mainwearing - just loves to irritate people, just because he can. In fact pretty much everyone in the village would like to see him dead.

Eventually that's just how he ends up - as food for a tank full of lobsters. Of course Hamish solves the mystery (after a second murder is discovered, of the man who fished the corpse out of the tank).

It was all a bit twee and I had trouble getting into it to be honest. The idea that Hamish was willing to propose to the local artist after spending a few days with her (mainly to try and break his obsession with Priscilla), was troubling.

Blair really got on my nerves - trying to cover the murder up so it didn't get out that the lobsters had eaten the victim. What made it worse was when he tried to get Hamish fired (but at least it showed that lots of fellow officers knew Hamish had solved the previous murders).

The solution to the murders came out of no-where, with Hamish disappearing for a few days and returning with all the answers and arresting someone straightaway. I wasn't particularly happy.

Let's see what happens with the next one.

Oh, Hamish! You are the ladykiller, you are!

I am unapologetic in my love of all things Hamish Macbeth.

I can't put finger on why it is so, but this one disappointed me. The characters felt flat, the mystery not that great and both the solution and the (rushed) way in which it was solved were pretty poor. Too much fuss about romantic subplots, if they can even be called as such. I hope the next volume is better.

Hamish is back and on the hunt for a murderer again. Sadly this one was a bit less engaging than the two before it. Hamish started to annoy me. I'm not a fan of his attitude to women. He is a bit condescending and frankly, just a bit irritating. I'll have a rest from him for a bit.

I'll be glad to get Hamish back to his own village. Interesting murder.

Good cozy mystery with interesting characters.

Death of an Outsider is the 3rd book in M.C. Beaton's Hamish Macbeth cozy mystery series set in Scotland. Constable Macbeth has been ordered to replace Sgt MacGregor of Cnothan for three months while the Sgt is taking his vacation. That means taking his dog Towzer out of his comfortable residence at Lochdubh and bus down to this dour town. Strangers aren't popular there and the place reminds me of the town the League of Gentleman. Well, maybe not quite so strange. But Hamish is very unhappy. What if the love of his life, Priscilla Halburton-Smythe returns and he's not there?

Hamish is not made too welcome when he arrives but he is a voluble, competent individual and gradually makes inroads to the community. Luckily for him, living next door to the police station is a lovely Canadian Jenny Lovelace makes his situation somewhat more bearable. Things happen fairly quickly. He is asked to investigate the attack on Mrs Mainwaring, the wife of an Englishman who has made himself very unpopular in the community. Supposedly she was scared by three women dressed as witches. Local scoundrels send him on wild goose chases but Hamish does make his presence known and deals quite satisfactorily with them.

At some point, a skeleton is discovered on the moors. There is more to this discovery, incidents that lead up to it, but I won't ruin that portion of the story for you. Suffice it to say that it's quite an interesting story. The discovery of the skeleton means that Hamish's arch enemy, Inspector Blair is sent to Cnothan to head the investigation. Blair doesn't like MacBeth because he solved previous cases which Blair had been investigating. Blair doesn't really want to investigate and he sends Hamish hither and yon to keep him out of the way. The problem is that Hamish is a good, sound copper and we know he'll come up smelling of roses anyway.

All in all, it's an entertaining, cozy, quick read and quite enjoyable. The people are all interesting and the crime is also unique. Most enjoyable, fun mystery. I'll continue enjoying this series. (4 stars)