M. C. Beaton. Death of a Village. Warner, 2003. A Hamish Macbeth Mystery.

Recently we discovered the nineties’ BBC television show Hamish Macbeth. We have gotten a kick out of the episodes and were curious about the novels the show is based on.

Hamish Macbeth is the constable for the Highland village of Lochdubh. Nothing much happens there, and Macbeth would be happy to spend his entire career there. His problem is that he is clever at solving mysteries and corralling criminals. His superiors want to promote him, but that would mean going away from Lochdubh to a more populated area like Inverness. Some skilled lawmen might end up at Glasgow.

Macbeth’s beat includes some even smaller hamlets in the hills. A fire destroys a house in the village of Stoyre. There is an explosion, but no one responds. Someone may have been killed. To a person, the villagers say it was an act of God. Hamish cannot help thinking that there is something more.

It appears that there is some kind of religious revival going on. People meet in the church daily. But Hamish sees no inspired preaching or repentant souls. It is almost cultish, as if the inhabitants of Stoyre have become like the wives of Stepford, with a religious veneer.

There are also a couple of things closer to home. A newlywed couple in town are having some difficulties. The wife claims her husband is beating her, but it appears that she may be abusing him. She may have married him for his money, but is she a gold digger or a black widow?

An older woman in town suspects foul play at a relatively new nursing home. People seem to be dying there at an unusual rate. It may have something to do with the financial arrangements the facility makes with its residents. Is she willing to become a guinea pig to prove her point, or is it all a misunderstanding? This has echoes of our recently reviewed Act of Negligence.

Hamish then, has four problems, the mysterious cultish arson at Stoyre (with maybe a murder), the injured wife (with a potential murder), the suspicious medical facility (maybe with a record of murders), and how to do his job well without getting promoted. The first three involve lots of action and some clever crime solving. The last involves some funny antics to try to get his supervisors to forget about him.

They all make for an entertaining read: a most unusual mystery plus two others joined with a plan that could backfire disastrously but involve some real fun if it works. I suspect this will not be the last Hamish Macbeth tale we will read.