A recovering drug addict takes up residence in a cottage nearby Lochdubh. When he is discovered dead from an apparent drug overdose, things look suspicious to our Hamish. Hamish knows headquarters doesn't want him anywhere near the case, but when the young man's parents approach him and asks Hamish to find out who killed their son, what's an honest copper to do? So Hamish takes leave and goes to investigate, never dreaming it will take him to Amsterdam working undercover or having him falling in love with a superior female officer. Can Hamish handle the assignment and find love at the same time?
Another great adventure ŵith the unambitious copper from Lochdubh, Constable Hamish Macbeth.

Death of an Addict is the 15th book in the Hamish MacBeth mystery series by M.C. Beaton. It's an interesting story, with Constable MacBeth of Lochdubb investigating the death of a young man and going under cover to infiltrate drug dealers in Strathbane.

I'm not reading these in order, just reading those I've got on my book shelf, so it's apparent that some things have gone on in Hamish's personal life that I've missed. Having said that, it doesn't take away from the story and you can get the gist of it.

Hamish goes to Drim, a village in his constabulary, to investigate reports of a sea monster in the Loch. While there he meets a young man renting a chalet from another local. Also there is a young lady, renting another of the chalets. This young man will turn up dead, presumed dead of an overdose. The boy's parents tell Hamish that the boy had once been addicted to heroin but had turned his life around. The whole thing seems to be questionable to Hamish, but his superiors in Strathbane feel it's an open and closed case.

Hamish takes time off from his work as local constable and begins an investigation on his own. His findings result in a bigger investigation of drug runners in the area. Det Inspector Olivia Chater is brought in from the Glasgow force to work with Hamish undercover to try and catch the local big guys in the drug enterprises.

This will involve pretending to be a big man in drugs as well and even mean a trip to Amsterdam. Hamish must learn to work with Olivia.. Hamish has trouble dealing with women, shyness and a habit of falling in love, and Olivia has felt the pressure of being a senior female police officer, which makes for a sometimes prickly relationship.

It's an entertaining story with sufficient action to hold your interest and some nice twists in the plot. It's all a new experience for Hamish, moving from his quiet rural constabulary to the high stakes drug trade. Most enjoyable. (4 stars)

I loved the Loch monster, but Amsterdam, really???

sigh...Would *I* marry Hamish Macbeth if he asked me? I don't know, but I surely would be mightily tempted! This was an enjoyable episode in the series. (listened on audio-book)

Death of an Addict is a different kind of contribution to M.C. Beaton's Hamish Macbeth mystery series. Police Officer Macbeth's sleepy Scottish village of Lochdubh officially enters the present as drugs and drug-dealers enter in the form of a young man who comes post-rehab to Lochdubh to write his cautionary memoirs-& then turns up dead of an overdose. The police are satisfied that he died of an accidental od: except, that is, for Hamish Macbeth, who has a feeling something's not quite right.
This is the most police-like of the series that I've read so far but Hamish is the same lovable self he always is. There are 2 detective stories in this one book: one a police procedural/thriller that's primarily plot-driven and one a small village murder mystery (cozy) that's primarily character-driven. There's romance, addiction, recovery, drug-tzars, and, as always, descriptions of this village of Lochdubh that make you want to pack up and move there.

Gad. Since I had cancer diagnosed 2014 Feb 14, I've lost patience for cancer in my fiction. The worst was five cases before half-way. This is another, pulls down my rating, enjoyment.

Scotland September. "It was a good day to be alive" for "lanky red-haired Highland policean" Hamish Macbeth p 7. Crofter Parry McSporran has two trailer long vacation lets. Felicity Maundy is English "save-the-world Greens .. Wispy hair, wispy clothes, big boots, no makeup" "here three months .. Writes poems" p 11. Wears costly clothes beyond dole income, lies to "pigs" p 51. "Tommy Jarret. Early twenties" p 11 "clean for six months" writing book about his drug use, dangers.

Only two hours later, Tommy is dead "syringe beside him" p 30. Manuscript and computer data after chapter one is missing, yet he was half finished. Tox screen shows heroin and "strong sleeping drug" p 55. His parents ask Hamish "Our son was murdered .. find out who did it" p 54.

Parry shows cops searching "upstairs room" p 94 filled "piles and piles of liberty caps - magic mushrooms" p 95 for sale. Parry is heroin pusher. Tommy gave Parry chance to explain. Parry killed Tommy, took away manuscript that would convict him.

Visiting two pushers, Hamish pretends to be a drug baron wanting to buy $50K "for starters" p 111. "Glasgow CID recently seized two shiploads" p 127, can sell captured drug bust. They send DI Olivia Chater to pose as wife of Hamish George.

Little makes sense. Druggies say wait a week. Cop superiors decide if 'Georges' "hang around here for a week, .. will be followed" p 171, send couple to Amsterdam, where they are followed anyway. Hamish knows officer Blair wants to sabotage Hamish, Blair ignores collateral damage of Olivia and others.

Romantic Hamish dreams of acting tourist, pretend kisses exchanged with Olivia feel real. Picked up by good-time-girl Anna "We have a little fun" p 190, Hamish feels exotic "marvellous" p 191, until prostitute asks for money.  

Hamish and Olivia sleep together. He offers her engagement ring. Ambitious, she wants to stay in city; he has no ambition, wants Lochdubh lakeside village.  Why does author add secret possibility "if she had cancer, and if she survived" p 283, breast removal would dub her "One Tit Olivia" p 283?

Reports of red-eyed monster in Loch Drim mean more to Hamish.  Lights are dropoff point that Glasgow cops are looking for.  Solutions are too fanciful, absurd. Tommy writes down episodes that identify his killer in his Bible. Missing manuscript never found?  Hamish finds the Bible in the dump.

Typo:
p 207 expecting them to be "around" is "armed" -----------------------------------

DEATH OF AN ADDICT (Police Procedural – cozy) – Ok
M.C. Beaton – 15th in series
Drugs come to the Scottish Highlands when a young man is found dead from an apparent overdose. But his parents believe it as murder and ask Constable Hamish Macbeth to investigate.
*** Although Hamish is brighter than he appears, the idea of him posing as a drug kingpin just doesn’t work. And the dialogue is weak in the extreme. It is extremely rare when a television series is better than the books but the BBC series of Hamish Macbeth is. This is a very light series anyway, but this story was one of the weakest.

I was disappointed in this book based on the previous ones in the series. The storyline started out as the others, a death deemed to be an overdose while Hamish believes it is suspicious. Then next is some religious cult which doesn't tie in until the very end and only 1 paragraph. Why have it in the story? Next Hamish is going undercover as a big time drug lord, this was far fetch in my opinion. I was disappointed in Blair not being caught being so underhanded. And I know Hamish is unlucky with women but I was surprised, Olivia, the detective who had been so cold to him, ended up going home with Hamish to play house for a short while. And I was completely confused why at the very end Olivia is mentioned again being at the doctor's office, is she to make another appearance? I hope this one unusual story was just an exception to the normally good series.
I listened to the audible version and the narration was good.

When a newcomer to Lochdubh, a recovering addict, is found dead, Hamish is suspicious. Soon, he finds himself involved in a very dangerous undercover operation. Can he and his undercover "wife," a Glasgow police inspector, find out what happened and bust a drug cartel?

A somewhat different entry in the series. I do wonder, however, what it is about Hamish that women find so compelling!

Ah, if you're ready for "Death of an Addict", you've already galloped through fourteen Hamish Macbeth books. And if you don't know who he is, then go back to #1 "Death of A Gossip." Perhaps you'll fall in love with the lanky Scotsman with blazing hair just as I did.

If you're in the reading doldrums, this series will sail you off to the horizon of the Highlands and make you smile. By #15, you already know many of the characters and it's like you've settled in a croft in Lochdubh (pronounced Loch do).

The death? Oh, yes, the death is a murder or is it? The conundrum of a former addict who appears to have overdosed. Read on with Macbeth. No spoilers.

n  I finally thought we had it. In the last chapter, I thought Hamish was going to throw his cap in the air and start belting out the lyrics to "Rewrite the Stars" à la some Highland flavour of Zac Efron.n

There is honestly so much to unpack with this one. What looks like a simple drug overdose leads to Hamish teaming up with Glasgow Detective Inspector Olivia Chater to uncover the drug barons of Strathbane. Because apparently those exist.

It's really obvious that Beaton knows nothing about the illegal drug market. I mean, I also know nothing about the illegal drug market, but even to me these situations seemed completely asinine (someone that looks like Hamish walks into a drug syndicate and offers to sell four kilos of heroine and you don't check to see if he's wired?!) This would have bothered me if the novel wasn't already ten levels of campy, but this was sort of the icing on the Dutch lemon cake.

Speaking of campy (and lemon), I can't even adequately express how trope-coated this book was, particularly where the romance was concerned. I love it, but damn.

Ridiculously adolescent tropes in this novel include but are not limited to:

1) Being professionally obliged to pretend to be married to someone who you kind of hate but are attracted to.

2) Being professionally obliged to share overnight accommodations with someone who you kind of hate but are attracted to (because that happens…).

3) Being professionally obliged to make out with someone who you kind of hate but are attracted to, in order to reinforce the validity of #1.

And of course the ending of this book is another great instance of Beaton's occasional tone disaster. I know serials like this one have episodic love interests that need to be… cast aside almost every novel, but Beaton seems to send most of them out in flames. And I'm not sure why.

Also, I know they were caught up in murders and drug busts, but did anyone ever go back and pay that restaurant bill?

If only Hamish had an extra fifty pounds to spare...

Reread 2021: I really wasn't going to reread this one, both because I really don't have an interest in drug lords and because Olivia's swan song, so to speak, hits a little close to home for me. However, in my quest to prepare for the enigmatic Green-Eyed Monster, I went ahead and reread. My only new thoughts were thus:

- I'm really not sure how a certain female character is super chill with unprotected sex after what happened to Hamish in Amsterdam. Hi caution, meet wind.

- How many birthdays a year does Mrs. Daviot have, give or take? I really need to start keeping track.

- Whatever happened to Crummy Joey after this novel? I'm starting to think he one day just climbed a mound of trash and never got down.

- Speaking of whatever happened to, I totally forgot about Hamish stealing the Armani suit et al. Why does he never wear it again? I think I'll write to Rod Green. The Armani suit needs a redemption arc.

maybe it was me, but I wasn't as taken by this story as by others in the series