Read by David Monteath.Summary: The most hated man in the most dour town in Scotland is sleeping with the fishes, or, more accurately, has been dumped into a tank filled with crustaceans. All that remains of the murdered victim are his bones. But once the lobsters have been shipped off to Britain's best restaurants, the whole affair quickly lands on the plate of Constable Hamish Macbeth. Exiled to the dreary outpost of Cnothan, Macbeth sorely misses his beloved Lochdubh, but before he can head back home he has to contend with a detective chief inspector who wants the murder hushed up, a dark-haired lassie who is out to seduce him, and a killer who has made mincemeat of his last victim, and will no doubt strike again.
All that remains of the murdered victim are his bones. But once the lobsters have been shipped off to Britain's best restaurants, the whole affair quickly lands on the plate of Constable Hamish Macbeth.Exiled to the dreary outpost of Cnothan, Macbeth sorely misses his beloved Lochdubh, but before he can head back home he has to contend with a detective chief inspector who wants the murder hushed up, a dark-haired lassie who is out to seduce him, and a killer who has made mincemeat of his last victim, and will no doubt strike again.
Read by David Monteath.
The most hated man in the most dour town in Scotland is sleeping with the fishes, or, more accurately, has been dumped into a tank filled with crustaceans. All that remains of the murdered victim are his bones. But once the lobsters have been shipped off to Britain's best restaurants, the whole affair quickly lands on the plate of Constable Hamish Macbeth. Exiled to the dreary outpost of Cnothan, Macbeth sorely misses his beloved Lochdubh, but before he can head back home he has to contend with a detective chief inspector who wants the murder hushed up, a dark-haired lassie who is out to seduce him, and a killer who has made mincemeat of his last victim, and will no doubt strike again.
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Publishers Weekly Review
The endearing Constable Hamish Macbeth (of Death of a Gossip and Death of a Cad ) is sent to the Scottish Highlands town of Cnothan, a place of ``dark hates and enmities'' whose inhabitants cordially loathe outsiders. Cnothan hospitality is mingy even toward the incoming constable, who finds his cupboard bare and his furnace set on a short timer. In view of the town's bad manners, few people display surprise when Mainwaring, an annoyingly brusque Englishman who settled eight years ago on his late aunt's estate, is reported murdered. There are plenty of suspects, among them the dead man's browbeaten widow, forced to wear mail-order-catalogue dresses. Suspicion falls on Sandy Carmichael, the drunken watchman for the nearby Fish and Game Company. And what of the two town ``lookers,'' glamorous Helen Ross or Jenny Lovelace, a young painter, possibly former mistresses wreaking revenge? Matters grow complicated when Hamish and Jenny become lovers. The characterization is wryly humorous, while a horde of ravenous lobsters give the plot a wildly ghoulish twist. Jaundiced views on love and marriage abound, and the visiting constable finds himself doubling as the local psychiatrist among this amusing cast of eccentrics. (Dec.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
There's something of Compton McKenzie's Whisky Galore and the films of Bill Forsyth (Local Hero and Gregory's Girl) in M. C. Beaton's offbeat, utterly endearing series of Hamish MacBeth mysteries. Hamish's beat is a far-from-sleepy village in the Scottish Highlands-- the kind of introverted, naturally suspicious hamlet that just seems to invite murder. A know-it-all Englishman is killed, his body stripped clean of flesh in lobster tanks and then removed from the tanks by the town drunk, who panics in the midst of a reckless bender. Several days later Hamish finds the drunk's decomposing body. As a mystery, Death of an Outsider is competent enough, although Beaton has to bend the rules toward the conclusion, whipping up an accomplice from nowhere. The real pleasure, however, is Hamish himself-- his agile mind hidden within Old World manners, his sly smile, and his gangly frame. While his superiors consider him close to senile, Hamish has a lethal effect on certain members of the opposite sex. A very welcome entry in a series that also includes Death of a Gossip [BKL Mr 1 85] and Death of a Cad [BKL F 1 87]. PLR.