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| Death of a Celebrity (Hamish Macbeth Mysteries, No. 18) | 
 enlarge | Author: M. C. Beaton
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Category: Book
List Price: $6.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  17 reviews
Sales Rank: 54309
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 6.5 x 4.5 x 0.9
ISBN: 0446612049
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780446612043
ASIN: 0446612049
Publication Date: January 1, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Cover wear and may contain some marks or writing. Keen Northwest ships in 2 business days or less. Refunds for any reason if item returned within 30 days of shipment.
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| Customer Reviews:
| Showing reviews 1-5 of 17 | | NEXT » |
 Bright lights and dead bodies in the Highlands - again October 22, 2008
A while back (DEATH OF A SCRIPTWRITER) Lochdubh had been used as a location for a BBC production with tragic results for several. Once again television crews are in the neighborhood, and once again Hamish Macbeth, Lochdubh's lovable but lazy constable has to find the culprit. Aided in his investigations this time by a newcomer, Elspeth, the writer from the local newspaper who has set her sights on Macbeth. So will this quirky young journalist replace the cool, aristocratic Priscilla in Hamish's heart?
As always with this series the true attraction is not the mystery but the ongoing life of Hamish and the other citizens of Lochdubh. Fans of this popular long running series will not want to miss even one installment but those new to the series will do better to begin at the beginning - DEATH OF A GOSSIP and work their way through the series in order.
ANOTHER NASTY CHARACTER THAT MOST OF SCOTLAND WANT DEAD! June 10, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Death of a Celebrity, by M.C. Beaton is another great offering to all the Hamish fans out there. This simple, well written series has brought a lot of reading enjoyment to many people out there over the years, and this addition only adds to that enjoyment.
Our redheaded constable in Lochdubh finds himself faced with another of Beaton's truly obnoxious characters, this time in the form of a very nasty T.V. personality who is starting a new show featuring MacBeth's little corner of the Highlands. A nasty, aggressive reporter with few morals, and an eye for married men! The premise of the T.V. show will be digging up dirty little stories of locals, doing a feature on them, and then releasing it to National T.V. Needless to say this young ambitious lady is not going to last long! Also, needless to say, there are no end of suspects, Hamish included, who would love to see her dead!
Of course, I am sorry to report, that Hamish is still fretting and moping over his one true and lost love, Priscilla, as she is about to get married to another, but ah, there is a new girl in town! A local reporter with psychic abilities; part gypsy, part liberated woman, bright, a great looker, intelligent, and indeed, as with most of the women in Scotland, she has her eyes set on the eternal bachelor. It that were not enough, he still has the problem of being promoted and the problem of how to get out of that promotion! We still have many of the wacky and eccentric characters we have met before, along with several new ones, which I hope, we see more of in future books.
Of course there is the first murder and the inevitable second one, but we have several nice, although not as serious, crimes thrown in here and there throughout. In addition to crime solving, Hamish is able to make a complete mess out of his love life, per usual...this poor guy just does not have a clue! Lugs, his faithful dog, is still lugs but has some new found freedoms in this story, which he takes full advantage of.
This is another enjoy able, smooth read, not all that complicated, but well done. As with previous novels, the author is again able to say more in one sentence than many writers can in a full chapter. Quirky, simple little mysteries..yes, but thoroughly enjoyable!
Hamish Meets a Friendly Detective Chief Inspector from Inverness and Attracts Two New Admirers May 30, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Death of a Celebrity is a nice change of pace for the Hamish Macbeth series. Instead of constantly battling with Detective Chief Inspector Blair over access to evidence and suspects and ultimately over credit for solving cases, Hamish receives what are mostly encouragement and help from Detective Chief Inspector Carson of Inverness while Blair is away. M. C. Beaton does one of her best jobs ever of portraying the differences between the ugliness of Strathbane and the beauty of Lochdubh.
Scandal, scandal, everywhere, and not an apology is heard: That could be the epigram for this story. Muckrakers from Strathbane television (who have their own bad deeds to hide) decide to make a splash to gain ratings by exposing every peccadillo they can find among the Highland communities. Even false accusations are dug up to be repeated on air.
And the presenter of this nasty show is the beautiful, unscrupulous, and unpleasant Crystal French (who doesn't understand that her sleeping around has been hurting her television career). Elspeth Grant, who writes the horoscopes in the Highlands, is sure someone is going to kill Crystal. That's not the last of Elspeth's prediction that will turn out to be true. Once Crystal is dead, Hamish quickly spots that her apparent suicide has been faked. But with few clues, Hamish must sort through those who hated Crystal (pretty much anyone who ever met her). In the process of checking on alibis and motives, Hamish keeps turning up more and more possible reasons and opportunities for mayhem.
Hamish has sworn off women, but this attitude has helped attract women to him in record numbers for an M. C. Beaton novel. You'll be roaring with laughter as you read the horoscopes that Elspeth puts out to try to influence Hamish to pay attention to her.
The humor is needed because the backdrop of human greed, abuse, and misery would otherwise make this book pretty much of a downer. Ms. Beaton must not be much a television fan because she couldn't portray the television characters as much darker than she does.
Fans of Hamish Macbeth will love this story. If you haven't read any of the other books in the series, you could read this one and it would make perfectly good sense. But you'll find the story darker than if you have read the earlier books.
Another Great Hamish! April 12, 2004
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is honestly one of my very favourite series, and each book is just as enjoyable as the last. I'm only sad that I'm getting to the end of the series, and hope that M.C. Beaton continues to write for a good long while yet. Hamish is a wonderful character and the eccentric people in his little village of Lochdubh are so real, that it seems they are actually real people. In this book we meet two new characters that I hope to see more of - Elspeth, who seems to be a wonderful romantic interest for the died-in-the-wool Bachelor, Hamish and Inspector Carson who takes the place of the odious Blair when murder of famous television celebrities occurs in and around Lochdubh. Again Hamish is thrown into a murder investigation in his quiet little village, and before he, Elspeth and Carson can solve it a few more deaths occur. For anyone who likes their mysteries cozy, with a definite wicked comic appeal, you cannot go wrong with Hamish Macbeth.
A great book June 17, 2003
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is the eighteenth in a series of mysteries featuring the detective work of small town, Highland Scottish detective Hamish Macbeth, P.C. When a television star attempts to make a career by exposing all of the secrets hidden in the quiet Highlands, she quickly becomes the most hated woman around. And when she turns up murdered, it's up to Hamish Macbeth to find who the murderer is. But, this is no simple case; suspects abound, and Hamish finds that he is getting the unwanted help of the local newspaper's astrologer! Can Hamish unravel this particularly tough knot? You bet!I now consider myself something of a Hamish fan (thanks to my loving wife), and I must say that I deeply enjoyed this book. As with all of the other Hamish Macbeth books, I enjoyed the stories, the setting and the interesting characters. I wasn't totally thrilled with the inclusion of a psychic character, but it didn't ruin the story for me. Overall, I thought that this is a great book, and I highly recommend it to you.
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