Review of
Beaton, M. C., 2016,
Death of a Nurse, a Hamish MacBeth mystery, Grand Central publishing,
$25 hb, ISBN 978-1-4555-5825-4, 256 p.
Death of a Nurse
is the 32nd in a series of murder mysteries set in the
Scottish highlands. I was sent a review copy and enjoyed the book so
much that I decided to review it. Even though it isn't SF. Then I
mislaid the book, and before I relocated it, got another copy in the
mail. Pinned by the fickle finger of fate!
Death of a Nurse
is about a policeman in a small town in Scotland. Everybody knows
everybody, and yet life (and death) is surprisingly complicated, and
full of complicated surprises. Hamish Macbeth has a date with a hot
young nurse who takes care of a cranky old man. She shows up late for
their date ... a few days late, and unexpectedly dead. Macbeth
attempts to find out what happened, but lies and half-truths lead him
into a morass of possible guilty parties with varied motives. These
include the old man, others in his household, other officers of the
law, and plenty more.
I liked the smoothly
believable plotting, the well-fleshed out and realistic characters,
Hamish (I always prefer books in which I like the protagonist), and
the denouement. Of course I liked the writing, too. What didn't I
like? Death of a Nurse was a bit more serious than my ideal
mystery. If you like murder mysteries, you should read this book.
Perhaps you'll want to start with the first in the series (available
for less than $7, including shipping), though I had no problem
jumping in at number 32.
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