Hamish Macbeth Mystery
35 primary works • 40 total works
Book 1
When society widow and gossip columnist Lady Jane Winters joins the local fishing class she wastes no time in ruffling the feathers - or should that be fins? - of those around her.
Among the victims of her sharp tongue is Lochdubh constable Hamish Macbeth, yet not even Hamish thinks someone would seriously want to silence Lady Jane's shrill voice permanently - until her strangled body is fished out of the river.
Now with the help of the lovely Priscilla Halburton-Smythe, Hamish must steer a course through the choppy waters of the tattler's life to find a murderer. But with a school of suspects who aren't willing to talk, and the dead woman telling no tales, Hamish may well be in over his head for he knows that secrets are dangerous, knowledge is power, and killers when cornered usually do strike again.
Book 2
Book 3
Book 4
Book 5
A Hamish Macbeth mystery.
Wealthy Maggie Baird is neither nice nor kind nor generous. Once she was beautiful, but now, although middle-aged, she retains the appetites of a beautiful woman. When Maggie's car catches fire with her inside it, suspicion focuses on the five houseguests staying at Maggie's luxurious Highlands cottage: her timid niece and four former lovers, once of whom Maggie had intended to pick for a husband. All five are impecunious. All five had ample opportunity to monkey with Maggie's car. So finding who did it requires all Police Constable Hamish Macbeth's extraordinary common sense and insight into human nature. And lazy lout though he may be, Hamish lets no grass grow under his feet when it comes to solving a murder. Especially when he may be the next target.
Book 6
Book 7
Book 8
Book 9
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...
Book 10
Book 11
Book 12
The unconventional Hamish Macbeth finds that his own impetuousness places him at the center of a murder investigation.
Death accompanies a tattooed stranger to a tiny Highland town...
Everyone in Lochdubh knows about the Macho Man - a mean bully claiming to be a professional wrestler and part-time explorer. His insults at the pub have caused brawls, while his furtive sneaking around arouses suspicion he is romancing some of the local wives. And when he challenges Hamish Macbeth to a public bout, it triggers an epidemic of betting.
Everyone expects Hamish to take a pounding, but no one anticipates a murder instead. And amid all the excitement it's up to level-headed Hamish to track down the heartless killer of the brutal Macho Man . . .
Praise for M C Beaton:
'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
Book 13
Book 14
Truth is stranger than fiction...
Patricia Martyn-Broyd, now in her seventies, has retired to the Highlands. She hasn't written a word in years and her books are out of print. But now a television company is about to film her last detective story, featuring the aristocratic Scottish detective Lady Harriet Vare. Even though the snobbish Miss Martyn-Broyd doesn't care to mix with the locals, she can't help but share her excitement with local policeman Hamish Macbeth.
Imagine her horror when Miss Martyn-Broyd discovers that the screenwriter is known for his violent and scurrilous scripts and that Lady Harriet Vare is to be portrayed as a pot-smoking hippy by the scene-stealing trollop Penelope Gates. But a contract is a contract, as Ms Martyn-Broyd quickly learns. And when she is accused of murdering both the scriptwriter and the leading lady, she turns to her one friend in Lochdubh, Hamish Macbeth, to help her.
Praise for M.C. Beaton:
'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
Book 15
Book 16
Grime and punishment . . .
When Fergus Macleod, Lochdubh's abusive, drunk dustman is put in charge of the local recycling centre and is dubbed 'Environment Officer', Hamish Macbeth smells trouble. Sure enough, Fergus, imbued with his new powers, becomes a bullying tyrant and when his body is found stuffed in a recycling bin, no one is sorry - including his long-suffering family.
But Hamish is surprised to find that many of the despicable dustman's victims refuse to talk - and when violence strikes again, the lanky lawman must quickly unearth the culprit among a litter of suspects . . . before the killer makes a clean getaway!
Praise for M.C. Beaton:
'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
Book 17
Death of a Celebrity: A Hamish Macbeth Mystery
Murder on the Telly Lochdubh, a remote village reached only by a one-track lane, nestles serenely amid Scotland's hills...until well-known TV reporter Crystal French races into town in her bright BMW. And Constable Hamish Macbeth, dourly wed to duty instead of the fiancee who dumped him, promptly gives her a summons for reckless driving.
Outraged, Crystal makes Macbeth's life a misery with a TV report on policing in the Highlands. 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. Then someone does-with stealth and violence. Now, finding out who did it will lead the laconic Macbeth down roads he never envisioned, into a dark story of passion and vengeance...and perhaps a crisis of the heart all his own.
Book 18
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Book 20
Not bored to death but murder most foul . . .
Celebrated author John Heppel is known in Lochdubh as a self-important bore, prone to belittling the scribblings of the locals in his creative writing class. So when he's found dead, his mouth oozing ink, it seems a fitting fate.
But for PC Hamish Macbeth the murder is more than a disruption to idyllic village life - especially when the media arrive, trailing in their wake DCI Heather Meikle, a maneater with a taste for bachelor police constables. Hamish must rekindle an old flame to escape her clutches and pull out all the stops to find the killer . . .
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