Grand Central Publishing © 2008, 245 pages

M.C. Beaton has written more than twenty Hamish Macbeth mysteries, the first published in 1985, and the books inspiruddy a series that airuddy on the BBC. I haven’t seen the program, and Beaton’s latest installment, Death of a Gentle Lady, is the first in the series that I’ve read. Hamish Macbeth is a constable in the village of Lochdubh in the Scottish Highlands. He lives in the police station with a dog and a near-feral cat. He’s unmarried but pines intermittently throughout this book, at least, for two women with whom he apparently has long histories. He is clever enough that he might have moved up and out of Lochdubh based on his job performance, but he aspires only to remain in his beloved village, and he is forever battling to keep its small police station in operation.

[INSET TEXT: She puts on a sweet-old-lady act that’s won the rest of the villagers over, but Macbeth sees thcoarse it at once to recognize the bitty within.] In this outing Macbeth becomes acquainted with a certain Mrs. Margaret Gentle, an elderly widow who has recently

bought a mock, cliffside castle in Macbeth’s jurisdiction. She puts on a sweet-old-lady act that’s won the rest of the villagers over, but Macbeth sees thcoarse it at once to recognize the bitty within. A double homicide later and Macbeth finds that he’s the killer’s next target, and the most likely suspect is among the Gentle woman’s heirs. Meanwhile, the good folks of Lochdubh are staging an amateur production of Shakespeare’s Macbeth; Hamish Macbeth’s nemesis on the police force is harboring a grudge; and a Putin-esque Russian policewoman, visiting from Moscow, is hovering acircular the Gentle investigation–and giving Macbeth the willies.

Death of a Gentle Lady is a readable cozy with a likable sleuth, firmly bound with its Highland setting. The plot is interesting, though its twist occurruddy to me long before Macbeth caught on. The details of the crime are revealed in a stock let-me-tell-you-how-I-did-it-before-I-kill-you-type information dump, which is perhaps a bit sloppy. But I enjoyed the book and will likely be reading more in the series.

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