Death of a Cad

The second in the series featuring Hamish Macbeth, Death of a Cad, focuses on the richest family in Lochdubh and the people they've invited to their home to meet their daughter's fiancé. This is one of those police procedural stories where the majority of the action takes place in a drafty castle with a cast of characters that are truly hard to root for...especially the guy that ends up biting it. (Imagine if you went to read this and discovered that he had died from biting into something truly heinous. I will neither confirm nor deny this is how he came to his sticky end. (See now you're wondering if he was smothered by honey.)) The dearly departed in this story is a pretty deplorable person who seems to have slept around with every show more woman in a 10 mile radius while offending every man he came into contact with...so the pool of suspects is WIDE. (Is that supposed to be deep?) The underlying plotline of the book is Hamish and the lord of the manor's daughter having a somewhat complicated relationship. Hamish is hopelessly in love but knows that he would not be accepted by this hoity toity family while the lady in question has never seen him as a possibility until she's seen him in direct comparison to the man she's supposed to be marrying. DRAMA. ROMANCE. MURDER. What more do you want in a mystery?! show less

Priscilla Halburton-Smythe is engaged, again; this time to Henry Withering, a rising playwright on the London scene. The pair travel back to Priscilla’s home of Tommel Castle near the Highland village of Lochdubh, in order to meet Priscilla’s parents. They, of course, have invited a selection of guests, most of whom begged for an invitation because they wanted to meet the celebrated playwright. Amongst the houseguests are two men there mainly for the grouse shooting, two young women who claim to be best friends but spend all their time spiting each other, and various other rich hangers-on. When one of the grouse-hunters is murdered, it is clear to Police Constable Hamish Macbeth that the killer must be one of the people in the show more house; the problem is that every one of them has good reason to hate the man…. The second Hamish Macbeth tale continues to delight: the characters are all well-drawn (many of them downright obnoxious), the murder is juicy and the relationship between Hamish and Priscilla continues apace. I figured out the culprit fairly early on but was unsure of the motive until the end - a good sign in a cozy mystery, I think! I’m hoping that the romance aspect is dealt with early in the series because I find the “will they/won’t they” teasing quite tedious (I feel that way about pretty much all romantic subplots in series, so this is not a criticism against Ms. Beaton); in the meantime, I’m looking forward to reading the next in the series. Recommended. show less

MCB writes a cracking story. This one romped along, I couldn't put it down. Huge cast of characters, took a a while trying to get them straight in my head, but gave up after a while because it's Hamish we're interested in. MCB's heroines seem much of a muchness - practical but innocent and quick to jump to the wrong conclusion.

The rating for Death Of A Cad is harsh. Or at least seems so, compared to my usual methods and standards. Part of my frustration is my inability to pinpoint the exact reason why the book was kind of meh, despite a great denouement. Adjectives! What use are they to me when I can only misuse them to try to gauge why I thought the book was pedestrian to a fault?

Reading this particular offering reminded me strongly less of M.C. Beaton's sibling franchise (the Agatha Raisin books) but more of Sue Grafton's popular series and not less popular that of J.D. Robb. The book doesn't have a lot of heart. It reads like it came from an assembly line. There is no soul to the book - here we go again. What's the use of describing something as soulless show more if that doesn't clarify my experience and reaction and the color of my disappointment towards this book? I can't narrow it down, I can't put to paper the itinerary of my journey of reading the book. I might as well get on with it and finish off with a less angst-y and less ridiculous paragraph. But first allow me to put my toys back in my pram...

So, straight to it, finally. I was pleased that the murderer turned out to be someone given a lot of screen time in the book. I'll say no more spoiler-y things, but I didn't want to give Death Of A Cad 3 stars because for something read almost in a day, it is surprisingly cagey in rewarding the patience of the reader. I was also fed up of lowering my expectations of mysteries and had to draw the line somewhere. I don't feel that I've thrown Death Of A Cad under the bus. I'm just saying I feel like I've been taken for a ride. show less

Macbeth vs. the London Playwright
Review of the Blackstone Audio Inc. audiobook edition (2016) of the St. Martin's Press hardcover original (1987)

After discovering M.C. Beaton's Hamish Macbeth cozy mystery series due to the Estonia cameo in Death of Yesterday, I started to seek out the earlier books by finding several at Toronto's Sleuth of Baker Street. I enjoyed those and found them to be an especially delightful diversion during this continuing pandemic. My next plan was to go back and read the series in order. I then discovered the rather terrific bonus that most of the books are available free on Audible Plus, a service that I had previously been underwhelmed by (some early attempts with longer books had audio difficulties, with show more book narrations freezing in midstream). Beaton's shorter books (usually 4 to 5 hours on audio) seem to be perfect for this medium.

Death of a Cad is the second of the series and continues building the characters in the fictional town of Lochdubh (pronounced Lock-Doo) in the Scottish Highlands. Macbeth's crush on Priscilla Halburton-Smythe is derailed with her engagement to a London playwright and the engagement party is the occasion for the arrival of numerous guests, including the boorish Captain Bartlett. The cad is murdered and Macbeth proceeds to solve the crime with especial satisfaction. show less

Great fun, provided that I only read one every 12 months or so. Beaton populates her book with another collection of well-to-do grotesques, with one obvious murder victim, the cad of the title, and then allows Hamish MacBeth, village Bobby of Lochdubh, to wander around solving the crime, despite the presence of "real" detectives. Lots of lovely descriptions of the highlands, many entertaining walk-ons, combine together with clever plotting to deliver a real entertainment.

This is the second in the Hamish Macbeth series. Priscilla Halburton-Smythe takes her London playwright fiancee, Henry Withering home to Lochdubh. Her parents are thrilled and throw a party and invite people who want to meet the famous man. Unfortunatley, Constable Hamish Macbeth is in love with her and is disappointed in her choice. When the cad, Captain Bartlett, one of the guests at Priscilla's engagement party, turns up dead shot while on a grouse hunt, the investigation initially is determined an accident by the out of town inspector. Hamish intervenes and proves it was a murder, but not who did it. The rich and snooty guests, the women who all share Bartlett's bed and even the fiancee all have motive and opportunity to have killed show more the Captain. Hamish must smooth ruffled feathers as he investigates the case. When the culprit strikes again, Hamish is immersed in the solving of the case while trying to court Priscilla and keep her from marrying Henry to mollify her parents. A fun read, but ending wraps up a bit too quickly for my taste. I will try the next one in the series to see if I am any more satisfied before I give up on Hamish Macbeth. show less