I reach for a Hamish Macbeth book when I want to read something light and entertaining. This is the 15th book in the series and I have read all of the previous books. This book was just ok for me and perhaps one of the my least favorite books so far in the series. The idea of Hamish as an undercover International Drug king pin was a stretch for me. I suppose after 14 books the author looks for a new plot for her series that is different than the previous ones.
The character of Detective Chief Inspector Blair who has always hated Hamish crossed the line in this book. It will be interesting to see where this character goes in future books. I imagine there will be little change and no consequences but will read on to find out.
I will continue with this series because I like the hours of relaxing light entertainment they give me.

Poor plot, not what Beaton is capable of writing.

Definitely one of the crazier Macbeth novels! This one was a bit darker than usual, although it had its share of amusing scenes. Hamish really needs to be more careful with his behaviour and do some better decision-making. I do hope he'll end up finding the right partner one of these days. I found the action in this book a bit over-the-top in terms of its credibility, but that's often the case in these cozy mystery series. All good fun if you can see it in that light.

I've read this one before and remembered why it was not my favorite. It's all about illicit drug trade. Hamish gets himself involved in undercover work that does not go well. Plus one of his co-workers is out for blood. That goes against all my ideals of right and truth.

Love that Hamish Macbeth! In this story Hamish becomes interested in a young man’s death. The young man is renting one of Hamish’s acquaintance’s holiday chalets. When the police investigate, Hamish learns that the young man had been a drug addict. Everyone thinks the young man died of an overdose, but Hamish isn’t so sure. Hamish begins an investigation of his own, which takes him to a strange church, where he goes undercover. He then becomes involved in another undercover operation where he plays a drug lord and the female detective inspector in charge of the case plays his wife. Hamish and the DCI get in over their heads when a member of the police force leaks information to the drug lord the police are investigating. In the end, the village of Lochdubh saves Hamish and the DCI from certain death from the drug lord. And Hamish vows to never try romance again.

This one was about drugs and Hamish came very close to being killed. He also had a girlfriend in this or maybe 2.

Hamish Macbeth is called upon to attend the death of a former drug addict.
Apparently taken a local chalet to write his book Tommy Jarret is found dead.
As a recovering addict the general consensus is that he reverted to old ways and overdosed.
But Hamish suspects foul play and elects to go undercover to infiltrate the local drug trade to get some info.
But things go awry and he is teamed up with a hard nosed Glasgow detective, Olivia Chater.
Hamish falls under Olivia's spell but must keep his eye on the job.
Another enjoyable murder mystery with the bumbling Hamish.

This was a bit of an odd one. Lots of strange sub=plots that go nowhere, murder that is pretty much forgotten for the majority of the book and strangest of all a little note at the end about the health of a new character that comes completely out of the blue and seems to have no impact on anything else.
The story has Hamish looking into the death of an ex heroin addict which only he believes is a murder. Hamish is thrown into the middle of an international drug ring and we even get to see him go undercover which was a nice change. He teams up with a female senior officer and they masquerade as husband and wife.
This book seems to be somewhat confused over how they wanted Hamish to be. One moment he is unexpectedly wise and dancing in circles around the high up officers and the next he is a complete country bumpkin who can't function in the modern world.
The murder mystery is not good but is better than the side plots about a cult and a possible local Loch Ness Monster. The drug ring storyline was interesting and made a nice change. Over all not the best but could be improved if some of the bizarre story points are followed on in the next book.

#15 in the series, with Blair continuing to be obnoxious. Hope he tones down in future installments.

This is the 15th Hamish Macbeth mystery by M.C.Beaton. Macbeth is a police constable in a Scottish Highland village. He normally desires nothing farther than being a village policeman and taking care of the small croft there. In this novel he becomes involved in the investigation into narcotics trafficking that takes him far and wide. Well, farther and wider than his usual investigation. This is one of the better Macbeth stories and I like them all so far.

M.C. Beaton strays from her usual cozy style in the 15th novel in her Hamish Macbeth series; usually, the perennial unambitious but preternaturally curious Constable Macbeth secretly investigates a closed case after being warned off by his superiors and manages to solve the crime and make the jealous Inspector Blair look foolish and spiteful. In Death of an Addict, Macbeth goes undercover in an elaborate international drug sting operation after poking his nose into the supposed suicide of the titular reformed heroin addict. While Macbeth carries off his undercover work implausibly well, it’s still a pretty good read. The culture shock between Macbeth and his Glaswegian partner and superior proves interesting, and I loved the softening of the hard-nosed Detective Inspector Olivia Chater as she gets to know Hamish and the slower-paced Highlands of Scotland better. I hope we get to see more of the clever and pretty Olivia, and the ambiguous ending makes me think I’ll get my wish.

Longtime readers will find Death of an Addict a wonderful change of pace; however, a pointless subplot involving a pair of scam artists running a religious cult slows down the action enough to knock the book into three-star territory. Even so, it’s still worth the trip to the nasty Highlands village of Drim to see Hamish far outside his comfort zone.

This was a good one! There was adventure and a deviation from the usual formula the stories follow. There’s a very funny scene where Hamish gets himself into an awkward situation that made for good comic relief. This book had you really disliking upper management, but cheering for the folks of Loch Duhb.