Death Of A Kingfisher

tags: audiobook, Hamish Macbeth, mystery-crime, "reread"

⭐⭐

When Scotland is hit by the recession, Police Constable Hamish Macbeth notices that the Highland people are forced to come up with inventive ways to lure tourists to their sleepy towns.

The quaint village of Braikie doesn't have much to offer, other than a place of rare beauty called Buchan's Wood, which was bequeathed to the town. The savvy local tourist director renames the woods "The Fairy Glen," and has brochures printed with a beautiful photograph of a kingfisher rising from a pond on the cover. It isn't long before coach tours begin to arrive.

But just as the town's luck starts to turn, a kingfisher is found hanging from a branch in the woods with a noose around its neck. As a wave of vandalism threatens to ruin Braikie forever, the town turns to Hamish Macbeth. And when violence strikes again, the lawman's investigation quickly turns from animal cruelty to murder.

I didn't particularly like Death of A Kingfisher when I read it 10 years ago and rated it only 3 stars. I listened to the audiobook as a "reread" and downgraded it to 2 stars.

The story is too twisty, convoluted, too forced and without the signature humor of M. C. Beaton. The latest Hamish books written by R. W. Green are very similar to this book. I suspect he probably wrote the last 8 Hamish Macbeth novels, from the 27th on. The presence of the regular village characters is almost non-existent which gave me the clue this is written by Mr. Green.

My beef with this novelette is the inclusion of a Russian thug, the 2 evil children spawned by Rhoda Penmark, and an unnecessary bloody chainsaw murder. The book also has the highest body count including the kingfisher, of any Hamish Macbeth books, 8 people and 1 bird.