The Hamish MacBeth series
#26: Death of a Sweep
Hardback
In the south of Scotland, residents get their chimneys vacuum-cleaned. But in the isolated villages in the very north of Scotland, the villagers rely on the services of the itinerant sweep, Pete Ray, and his old-fashioned brushes. Pete is always able to find work in the Scottish highlands, until one day when Police Constable Hamish Macbeth notices ...More
#24: Death of a Witch
Hardback
Returning from holiday Hamish becomes unaccountably worried – it’s as if he senses a dark cloud of evil hanging over Lochdubh. He soon learns that there is a newcomer to the village, a woman called Catriona Beldame, and that the villagers have decided she is a witch.At first Hamish is charmed by her, but is dismayed when he ...More
#24: Death of a Witch
Paperback
Returning from holiday Hamish becomes unaccountably worried – it’s as if he senses a dark cloud of evil hanging over Lochdubh. He soon learns that there is a newcomer to the village, a woman called Catriona Beldame, and that the villagers have decided she is a witch.At first Hamish is charmed by her, but is dismayed when he ...More
#23: Death of a Gentle Lady
Paperback
Mrs Gentle has fooled everyone into thinking she is as sweet as she sounds – Gentle by name and gentle by nature. But local constable Hamish Macbeth isn’t fooled. He believes this little old lady is actually quite sly and vicious, but he’s in a minority of one. Or is he?When Mrs Gentle dies under unusual circumstances t...More
#23: Death of a Gentle Lady
Hardback
Mrs Gentle has fooled everyone into thinking she is as sweet as she sounds – Gentle by name and gentle by nature. But local constable Hamish Macbeth isn’t fooled. He believes this little old lady is actually quite sly and vicious, but he’s in a minority of one. Or is he?When Mrs Gentle dies under unusual circumstances t...More
#22: Death of a Maid
Paperback
Done, dusted… and dead!Armed with a bucket and mop, Mrs Gillespie is destined to bring misery into the life of Hamish Macbeth when he wins her maid services in a church raffle, knowing she is likely to do more snooping than actual cleaning. Yet Hamish has more upsetting issues to ponder – his former girlfrie...More
#21: Death of a Dreamer
Paperback
She couldn’t paint to save her life – so someone’s given her a lesson by taking it!Most newcomers don’t stay long in remote Lochdubh – usually boredom, dampness and nosy locals drive them out. But it looks as if artist Effie Garrand has come to stay. When Hamish Macbeth calls on her he’s ...More
#20: Death of a Bore
Paperback
Not bored to death but murder most foul . . .Celebrated author John Heppel is known in Lochdubh as a self-important bore, prone to belittling the scribblings of the locals in his creative writing class. So when he’s found dead, his mouth oozing ink, it seems a fitting fate.
But for PC Hamish Macbeth ...More
#19: Death of a Poison Pen
Paperback
A sudden outbreak of maliciousness strikes the town of Lochdubh in the form of a rash of poison pen letters. Things turn deadly when the local postmistress is found hanged in her room… with a vicious note beneath her dangling feet. Though his superiors call it suicide, PC Hamish Macbeth pronounces it murder. But Hamish is soon distracted by Je...More
#18: Death of a Village
Paperback
Trouble is afoot in the remote Scottish fishing village of Stoyre, where the inhabitants are acting kind of… fishy. On a routine visit, Hamish Macbeth finds the pub empty, the church unexpectedly full, and the very air permeated with fear. Then an explosion levels a holiday cottage which the locals call ‘an act of God’. Hamish has an...More
#17: Death of a Celebrity
Paperback
Lochdubh, remotely nestling in the Highlands, is perfectly anonymous… until well-known TV reporter Crystal French races into town in her bright new BMW. And PC Hamish Macbeth, dourly wed to duty rather than the fiancée who dumped him, promptly gives her a ticket for reckless driving. Outraged, Crystal makes Macbeth’s life a misery ...More
#16: Death of a Dustman
Paperback
When Fergus Macleod, Lochdubh’s abusive, drunk dustman is put in charge of the local recycling centre and is dubbed the ‘Environment Officer’, Hamish Macbeth smells trouble. Sure enough, Fergus, imbued with his new powers, becomes a bullying tyrant and when his body is found stuffed in a recycling bin, no one is sorry – includin...More
#15: Death of an Addict
Paperback
Recovering addict Tommy Jarret has rented a chalet to check out reports of a sea monster near the village of Drim. Then he turns up dead, apparently from a drug overdose, and constable Hamish Macbeth finds the lad’s demise particularly fishy. Deciding to go undercover, Hamish infiltrates the local drug dealing trade.But his plans looks doomed ...More
#14: Death of a Scriptwriter
Paperback
Patricia Martyn-Broyd, now in her seventies, has retired to the Highlands. She hasn’t written a word in years and her books are out of print. But now a television company is about to film her last detective story, featuring the aristocratic Scottish detective Lady Harriet Vare. Even better, a London publisher is bringing the book into print. E...More
#13: Death of a Dentist
Paperback
Just when Hamish most needs him – the dentist turns up dead...In Scotland, where thrift and a ‘nice set of dentures’ are generally admired, dental surgeon Dr Frederick Gilchrist’s cheap rates and penchant for pulling teeth have gained him a clientele. However, wiser Highlanders (like Hamish Macbeth) opt to steer cl...More
#12: Death of a Macho Man
Paperback
The unconventional Hamish Macbeth finds that his own impetuousness places him at the center of a murder investigation.Everyone in the Scottish Highlands village of Lochdubh called Randy Duggan 'the Macho Man'. Duggan went around the village and bragged about everything he had done and said he once was a wrestler in America a...More
#11: Death of a Nag
Paperback
After a romantic disappointment and an undeserved demotion, Scots village bobby Hamish Macbeth decides a week's holiday at the coastal village of Skag might be just the ticket.He's dead wrong, of course: the food is dire, and the man in the next room nags his wife so loudly and continuously that more than one person at the F...More
#10: Death of a Charming Man
Paperback
Now that Priscilla Halburton-Smythe has agreed to marry him, Police Sergeant Hamish Macbeth can't imagine a more perfect life. There's not much crime in his remote Scottish village of Lochdubh, nothing much at all to do but fish, drink coffee, and slouch around. And now to spend time with lovely Priscilla.But his days aren&#...More
#9: Death of a Travelling Man
Paperback
It’s springtime in the Highlands but storms are brewing for Hamish Macbeth. His life is going to pot. He has – horrors! – been promoted, his new boss is a dunce, and a sinister self-proclaimed gypsy and his girlfriend have parked their rusty eyesore of a van in the middle of the village.Hamish smells trouble and as usua...More
#8: Death of a Glutton
Paperback
Her table manners were a crime. But she didn’t deserve to die!There’s not a cloud in Hamish Macbeth’s sky – just plenty of warm sunshine but not quite enough of the lovely Priscilla Halburton-Smythe. But as eight hopeful members of the Checkmate Singles Club converge on Tommel Castle Hotel for a we...More
#7: Death of a Prankster
Paperback
Stabbed and stuffed in a closet…When police constable Hamish Macbeth receives the news that there has been a murder at Arrat House, home of the relentless practical joker Arthur Trent, he doesn’t race to the scene of the crime. After all, last time he was called to investigate a death at the isolated Scottis...More
#6: Death of a Snob
Paperback
Murder in Paradise…When Jane Wetherby offers PC Hamish Macbeth a holiday at her ‘Happy Wanderer’ health farm on the isle of Eileencraig, he is more than happy to accept.
Unfortunately the visit doesn’t prove to be the pampering experience he had been hoping for. Windswept Eileencraig is inhabited by ho...More
#5: Death of a Hussy
Paperback
A tart with a heart of stone…Maggie Baird is neither kind or generous, but she is very, very rich. So when her car catches fire, with her inside it, there are five likely candidates for the role of murderer. All five had been houseguests at her luxurious Highlands home – Maggie’s timid niece and four former lovers, one ...More
#4: Death of a Perfect Wife
Paperback
Hamish Macbeth is savouring the delights of a Highland summer, but as fast as the rain rolls in from the loch his happy life goes to hell in a handbasket.The trouble begins when his beloved Priscilla Halburton-Smythe returns to Lochdubh with a new fiancé on her arm. His miseries multiply when clouds of midges descend on the tow...More
#3: Death of an Outsider
Paperback
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 ...More
#2: Death of a Cad
Paperback
When Priscilla Halburton-Smythe brings her London playwright fiancé home to Lochdubh, everyone in town is delighted… except for love-smitten Hamish Macbeth. Yet the affairs of his heart will have to wait.Vile, boorish Captain Bartlett, one of the guests at Priscilla’s engagement party, has just been found murdered ...More
#1: Death of a Gossip
Paperback
When society widow and gossip columnist Lady Jane Winters joins the local fishing class she wastes no time in ruffling feathers – or should that be fins? – of those around her.Among the victims of her sharp tongue is Lochdubh constable Hamish Macbeth, yet not even Hamish thinks someone would seriously want to silence Lady Ja...More
#1: A Highland Christmas
Hardback
In dark, wintry Lochdubh, Christmas Cheer is about as welcome as a flat tyre on a deserted road. The Calvinist element in town has always resisted what they view as secular frivolity, so for most of the townsfolk there’ll be no carols, feasting, gifts – or even whisky on Christmas Day!And for PC Hamish Macbeth there’s n...More
