AudioBook Review: Death of a Perfect Wife, Hamish Macbeth #4 by M.C. Beaton

AudioBook Review:

There isn’t any great mystery to why I enjoy the Hamish Macbeth series: these are light and clever cozies with plenty of diversions from the scenery, the secondary characters and even the murder victim themselves.  In this book, Hamish’s long-term flirtation returns from a trip with a new fiancé, much to his dismay.  He has dragged his feet long enough, and she has found someone who will step up.  When you add in a newcomer who is seeking to change how Lochdubh’s populace function, life is in total chaos.

Hamish is not fond of change, and even if there is momentary relief when this newcomer is found dead, he also needs to solve the mystery and see the murderer brought to justice. Again, there are so many unique and cleverly introduced secondary characters that keep the reader entertained and engaged.  Narration, again by Shaun Grindell is well suited to both the lightness and the fun of this mystery, he has a delivery style that is not intrusive nor over-reaching, yet suits and enhances the story beautifully.

I would suggest that readers attempt these stories in order unless they are familiar with the television production from the BBC.  The romantic thread does necessitate a linear follow, although the romance is creeping at snail’s pace.  If you want a smooth and light cozy mystery – this is certainly the one for you.

Stars  Overall:  4  Narration:  4  Story:  4 

AudioBook Review: Death of a Perfect Wife, Hamish Macbeth #4 by M.C. Beaton

Title: Death of A Perfect Wife
Author: Marion Chesney
Genre: Contemporary Mystery
Narrator: Shaun Grindell
Published by: AudioGo
Format:Audiobook
Source: AudioBook Jukebox
Pages: 192
Audio Length: 4 Hours: 44 minutes
Rated: four-stars
Get Your Copy: Amazon ♦ AllRomance ♦ iTunes
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Hamish Macbeth, the laid-back constable of Lochdubh, Scotland, has a new Land Rover to drive and a Highland summer to savor, but as fast as 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 from London . . . with a fiancé on her arm.

His miseries multiply when clouds of midges (the diabolical Scottish mosquito) descend on the town. Then a paragon of housewifery named Trixie Thomas moves into Lochdubh with her lapdog husband in tow. The newcomer quickly convinces the local ladies to embrace low-cholesterol meals, ban tobacco, and begin bird-watching. Soon the town's fish-and-chips-loving men are up in arms.

Now faced with the trials of his own soul, Macbeth must solve Lochdubh's newest crime-the mysterious poisoning of the perfect wife.

A copy of this title was provided via AudioBook Jukebox for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.

About Marion Chesney

Marion Chesney was born on 1936 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK, and started her first job as a bookseller in charge of the fiction department in John Smith & Sons Ltd. While bookselling, by chance, she got an offer from the Scottish Daily Mail to review variety shows and quickly rose to be their theatre critic. She left Smith’s to join Scottish Field magazine as a secretary in the advertising department, without any shorthand or typing, but quickly got the job of fashion editor instead. She then moved to the Scottish Daily Express where she reported mostly on crime. This was followed by a move to Fleet Street to the Daily Express where she became chief woman reporter. After marrying Harry Scott Gibbons and having a son, Charles, Marion went to the United States where Harry had been offered the job of editor of the Oyster Bay Guardian. When that didn’t work out, they went to Virginia and Marion worked as a waitress in a greasy spoon on the Jefferson Davies in Alexandria while Harry washed the dishes. Both then got jobs on Rupert Murdoch’s new tabloid, The Star, and moved to New York.

Anxious to spend more time at home with her small son, Marion, urged by her husband, started to write historical romances in 1977. After she had written over 100 of them under her maiden name, Marion Chesney, and under the pseudonyms: Ann Fairfax, Jennie Tremaine, Helen Crampton, Charlotte Ward, and Sarah Chester, she getting fed up with 1714 to 1910, she began to write detectives stories in 1985 under the pseudonym of M. C. Beaton. On a trip from the States to Sutherland on holiday, a course at a fishing school inspired the first Constable Hamish Macbeth story. They returned to Britain and bought a croft house and croft in Sutherland where Harry reared a flock of black sheep. But Charles was at school, in London so when he finished and both tired of the long commute to the north of Scotland, they moved to the Cotswolds where Agatha Raisin was created.

While Marion wrote her historical romances under her maiden name, Marion Chesney, as well as several pseudonyms (Helen Crampton, Ann Fairfax, Jennie Tremaine, and Charlotte Ward), because of her great success with mystery novels as M. C. Beaton, most of her publishers both in the U.S. and abroad use the M. C. Beaton pseudonym for all of her novels.

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