Death Of A Gentle Lady

tags: Hamish Macbeth, mystery, Scottish highland

⭐⭐⭐⭐

From Goodreads

Gentle by name, gentle by nature. Everyone in the sleepy Scottish town of Lochdubh adores elderly Mrs. Gentle - everyone but Hamish Macbeth, that is. Hamish thinks the gentle lady is quite sly and vicious, and the citizens of Lochdubh think he is overly cranky. Perhaps it's time for him to get married, they say.

But who has time for marriage when there's a murder to be solved? When Mrs. Gentle dies under mysterious circumstances, the town is shocked and outraged. Detective Inspector Blair suspects members of her family, but Hamish Macbeth thinks there's more to the story, and begins investigating the truth behind this lady's gentle exterior.

I thought I have read all of the Hamish Macbeth mystery books and found out I missed reading this one. The last book was completed by another author after M.C. Beaton's passing.

Hamish didn't like Mrs. Gentle at their first meeting and vice versa. Hamish who has been wishy washy with regards to marrying either Priscilla or Elspeth, suddenly proposed to marry the "Turkish" maid of Mrs. Gentle to save her from being deported. The woman, named Ayesha is very tall, beautiful, and has blonde hair. She says some Turks are very fair. On the day of the wedding, Ayesha didn't show up and disappeared. 

The police contacted Turkey and found out Ayesha is a high class Russian hooker who stole the real Ayesha's passport and identity. The whole village started to make fun of Hamish and the elderly women tried to avoid him fearing of getting AIDS from Hamish. Silly women. The book is often hilarious and ridiculous. The ending and death of the murderer of both the maid and Mrs. Gentle is quite dramatic.

The highlight of the book is the marriage of Inspector Blair, the bane of Hamish's existence. Hamish has the last laugh for manipulating Blair into a marriage which he deserves (to a former prostitute). Blair imprisoned Hamish in a cabin with the help of the said woman. Tit for tat.