Death of a Valentine: A Hamish Macbeth Mystery by M.C. Beaton

Title: Death of a Valentine: A Hamish Macbeth Mystery
Author: M.C. Beaton
Publication: Grand Central Publishing, hardcover, 2010
Genre: Mystery
Setting: 21st century Scotland

Description: Hamish Macbeth is a comically unambitious police sergeant in the small town of Lochdubh in the Scottish Highlands, where he is surrounded by eccentric locals who know nearly everything about each other’s business and clearly invent the rest. In this 29th book in the series, Hamish has acquired a female police constable Josie McSween who had developed a crush on him from afar, reading about his successful cases. Hamish has not previously been successful in love but he is not attracted to Josie at all and persuades the Vicar’s wife to put her up, as he lives in the police station. Josie continues to devise ways to capture Hamish’s heart despite his obvious lack of interest, ignoring the requirements of her job. Then, a local woman who works at a wildlife park receives a Valentine’s Day parcel containing a bomb that kills her, and Hamish and Josie are thrown together to solve the crime, which seems as if it will kill or cure their relationship . . . .

My Impression: I know this is a popular series but I found it no more than mildly appealing and when I remembered that M.C. Beaton was Marion Chesney, whose regencies I disliked for being anachronistic and slapstick, I was not surprised as there was plenty of slapstick humor in this book. Josie’s neglect of her job and her antics to capture Hamish’s interest are meant to be silly, not taken seriously, and I will admit her attempts to drug Hamish into affection have funny results:

He fumbled for the light and switched it on. He rapidly searched the small station. No Hamish. No animals.

He sat down at the kitchen table, facing the door, rifle at the ready. He saw the glass of whisky in front of him. Just the thing. He usually never drank until the job was over, but one wouldn’t hurt. He drank it down, wrinkling his nose at the taste and wondering whether it was moonshine from one of the illegal stills he believed to be up in the hills.

Then Roger began to feel so very sleepy. The hallucinatory effect of the drug began to take over. He felt he was back in his own flat in East Glasgow. He stumbled through to the bedroom, stripped off his clothes, crawled into Hamish’s bed and fell asleep.

Not having read the earlier books in the series, I couldn’t figure out Hamish’s real romantic interest and he seemed a bit confused himself. The series continued to 36 books so the author (now deceased) had to fill them with something more than meandering investigations! However, this is the kind of cozy mystery where nothing much seems to happen even while the crime is being solved and then the placid village life continues:

Lochdubh settled back into its usually lazy life as a rare fine summer spread across the Highlands of Scotland.

Hamish appreciated his life as never before. Any crimes he had to deal with were small. He had only two worries. Elspeth had not returned any of his calls. And he had not been demoted, so there was still the threat of another police officer being billeted on him.

This is my fourth book for the Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge and it falls under the “Seasonal” Category for the Book Bingo Challenge. I feel as if I have read a lot more crime fiction than four recently but I suppose I have not had time to review them all.

Source: Library

May your Valentine's Day have love, not murder!