Book review - Death of a Valentine by M. C. Beaton

Death of a Valentine is the 26th out of 27 books in the Hamish Macbeth Murder Mystery series by M. C. Beaton. The mysteries are set in and around the quiet village of Lochdubh in the Scotland countryside. The village policeman, Hamish Macbeth, who has a laid-back attitude to life in general, prefers to solve all murders and in general maintain peace and quiet within his beat without attracting a lot of attention to himself. He does his best to avoid any subsequent accolades or promotions as a result of his successes.

The book is written in a simple style without unnecessary turns of phrase. The mystery is a straightforward one with too many suspects so that both Hamish and the reader feel lost. However, as usual the mystery is successfully brought to a proper conclusion at the end without Hamish's bosses getting to know that he is the one to have solved the case.

There is a side-story going on all through the book which does make it a bit irritating. It deals with Hamish's junior, a new female constable, Josie, who seems to be less of a police officer and more of a matchmaker - obsessed about marrying Hamish and her future life with him. Her antics seem unbelievable at times, making up schemes which no sane woman trained to be a police officer would probably be capable of. She runs away from the job too much just like at one point she runs away while the macho Hamish rescues a lion that had escaped into the countryside.

Its a good book if you want something to finish in a day or more likely, in a couple of hours. There are a number of characters which are a continuation from the previous books in the series, but it is easy to follow them. It is less easy to follow the suspects in the investigation. Go ahead and read it, specially if you like cozy mysteries.