I didn't find this particular crime to be all that interesting, probably because it involved an organised crime family. I really enjoy a more local flavour.

The Hamish Macbeth show ran from March 1995 to May 1997. The show was loosely based on the books by M.C. Beaton, both featuring Constable Hamish Macbeth in the town of Lochdubh, Scotland. The show, however, was not a direct adaptation of the novels.Soon after this revelation, Lady Jane is found murdered. No one in the party is exactly upset about this development, but Hamish Macbeth (the local policeman) feels obligated to find the murderer. At this point, the book mirrors an English murder-mystery. In essence, a small group of people are trapped and each of them is a suspect in a murder case, much like the famous movie Clue. At this point, it is left up to Macbeth to determine who the culprit is and how to bring him/her to justice. In this book, Macbeth is assisted by his love interest Priscilla Smythe and, together, they bring the killer to light. In the Hamish Macbeth debut novel, Death of a Gossip (all of the Macbeth novels being with “Death of a” and end with some kind of career or adjective), eight people meet in Lochdubh. They all go to the same temporary school, all mainly trying to get away from their hectic lives and enjoy a small amount of vacation time. Lady Jane Withers, one of the members of the clan, is a notorious gossip. When she learns that each guest has a secret to hide, she is elated. Robert Carlyle is a very fine actor but I got fed up with the whole lot of them. He insisted that Hamish Macbeth smoked pot and said if he wasn’t allowed to smoke pot he’d leave the series. It wasn’t the way I saw it.

Most of the “crimes” here are of the low-scale variety --- that is, until Alice McBride reports her husband missing. After Hamish and Dorothy take Alice’s statement, he shows her one of the many fishing spots where Mr. McBride likes to frequent to get away from the missus. Dorothy not only relishes the beautiful vistas of this area of Scotland, she also finds herself falling for her partner. She exclaims to Hamish that she’s never been happier in her entire life. Good afternoon, Sergeant,' she said, in a soft voice delicately laced with an endearing lilt that might have drifted in from the Western Isles on the summer breeze. 'Constable Dorothy McIver reporting for duty.'Any time a series goes beyond the normal length (3-6 books) it becomes quite the juggling act to figure out what to read next.