“Death of Yesterday,” by M. C. Beaton

FM's ratings:

1. Premise 7
2. Prose 7
3. Plot 8
4. Characters 8
5. Overall 8

Comments (optional - but try to keep it under 3000 words!)

As much as I enjoyed this book, it’s hard for me to pinpoint any outstanding qualities. It’s a “Hamish Macbeth Mystery,” apparently very popular in the U. K., Scotland in particular, and written by a mystery writer of wide acclaim, though this is the first one I have read. The series has even been made into a television series, though I don’t know if it gets much play outside the U. K. The prose style reminds me of Alexander McCall Smith, another very popular Scottish writer with huge sales in the U. S. But the story is considerably darker than Smith’s stories – Smith being notably “anti-Noir” – and almost as dark as Ian Rankin’s wonderful Edinburgh novels. The descriptions of Scottish society, the Scottish Highlands countryside/weather, and Scottish personalities and colloquialisms are a real treat. Hamish Macbeth himself is fun to watch in action, though not as fleshed out a character as most “heroes” are – almost like a lead character in a sit-com, though the humor here is often low-key. I have immediately continued with “Death of a Witch” by the same author, something I don’t often do; but this series, light as it is, I find compelling.



Here’s the February line-up!


"The Right Attitude to Rain," by Alexander McCall Smith [2-3-18]
"The Ape Who Guards the Balance," by Elizabeth Peters [2-10-18]
"The Three Musketeers," by Alexandre Dumas [2-17-18]
"The Perfectly Proper Paranormal Museum," by Kirsten Weiss [2-24-18]