No wonder she's been crowned Queen of Cosy Crime' Mail on SundayAmazing news is spreading like wildfire across the Scottish countryside: the most famous of all Lochdubh, remotely nestling in the Highlands, is perfectly anonymous... until well-known TV reporter Crystal French races into town in her bright new BMW. And PC Hamish Macbeth, dourly wed to duty rather than the fiancée who dumped him, promptly gives her a ticket for reckless driving.
Outraged, Crystal makes Macbeth's life a misery with a TV report on policing in the Highlands... but when she also rakes up old local scandals for her new hit show, Macbeth notes that someone besides himself might be dead keen to stop her. And then someone does.
Now, finding out who did away with the nosy reporter will lead the laconic Macbeth down roads he never envisioned... and perhaps a crisis of the heart all his own.
She couldn't paint to save her life - so someone's given her a lesson by taking it!Most newcomers don't stay long in remote Lochdubh - usually boredom, dampness and nosy locals drive them out. But it looks as if artist Effie Garrard has come to stay. When Hamish Macbeth calls on her he's amazed to find the woman in residence after a particularly harsh winter.
Unfortunately, Effie is also quite delusional, having convinced herself that fellow local artist Jock Fleming is in love with her and that they are engaged. But after a lover's scrap with Jock, Effie is found dead, poisoned by hemlock. Suicide or murder? It's up to Hamish to find out whether the dreamer's death is the result of something much more serious than a broken heart .
. . Praise for M.C.
Beaton 'The detective novels of M. C. Beaton, a master of outrageous black comedy, have reached cult status' Anne Robinson, The Times'The books are a delight: clever, intricate, sardonic and amazingly true to the real Highlands' Kerry Greenwood'It's always a special treat to return to Lochdubh' New York Times
It's springtime in the Highlands but storms are brewing for Hamish Macbeth. His life is going to pot. He has - horrors! - been promoted, his new boss is a dunce, and a sinister self-proclaimed gypsy and his girlfriend have parked their rusty eyesore of a van in the middle of the village.
Hamish smells trouble and as usual he's right. The doctor's drugs have gone missing. Money vanishes.
And neighbours suddenly become unneighbourly. Nobody wants to talk either, so canny Hamish faces the delicate task of worming the facts out of the villagers. In the process he uncovers a story so bizarre that neither he nor the locals may ever be able to forget it...