Death of a Kingfisher [by] M.C. Beaton
New York; Grand Central Publishing [2012]
978-0-446-54736-9; $24.99
It’s always fun to spend some time in the picturesque village of Lochdubh in the Scottish Highlands with Hamish Macbeth, the village bobby. This time he is saddled with a sidekick, Dick Fraser, a man even lazier than Hamish, but is very good at quiz shows – he wins the police station both a dish washer and a flatscreen TV. He’s also pretty good at getting information.
This one has more corpses than the average Macbeth book, starting with the kingfisher of the title. This is indeed a bird – the highpoint on the tour of the Fairy Glen, a new tourist attraction outside a neighboring town. The man who had lived in the neighboring house had left the lovely glen to the people of the town. It is now run by a trust, with Mary Leinster as its head an major developer. She is quite a looker, and briefly captures the heart of Hamish, who has a legendary problem with women.
The woman who lives in the old house near the glen is Mrs. Colchester, a rather poisonous person. Her grandchildren are staying with her: Olivia and Charles Palfour. They are even more unpleasant, for they lie, cheat, and steal, but this is not always obvious, except in hindsight. They have obviously been damaged in the past, although how is not clear, since they lie. Soon their parents come to join them.
Mrs. Colchester dies soon after the kingfisher (which is hanged in the glen near its nest.) She used an elevator that went up the steps of the house to the second story. On the occasion of her death, a rocket had been put under the seat, and the motor had been tampered with, so she was shot through the roof! The heirs are most anxious to receive their inheritance, but that doesn’t immediately happen. They do discover, however, that the treasure room in the house is missing some of its treasures, which rather heats things up.
The next person to die is Mary Leinster, drowned in the pond in the glen. All of the proceeding work on the glen, including the gift shop being built by her brothers, is stopped. The wife of the provost, and a dab hand with a chainsaw, is killed next, in a grisly way. She had been critical of the glen development, and may have been guilty of damaging the bridge, which dropped a number of tourists into the pond.
What happens next indicates that the situation has a lot of outside influence, for the whole Palfour family is kidnapped. Mr. Palfour dies, although the children survive so they can run away, and Mrs. Palfour dies in an attempt to drown Hamish in the nearby Loch. Hamish bounces back, and manages to provide all of the really necessary clues to solve the crimes, much to his superiors’ chagrin.
Although only a couple of the Lochdubh characters make an appearance, the flavor of the other stories in the series is maintained, and this is a top-notch humorous police procedural mystery series. Highly recommended. ~ lss-r
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Library book.
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