Death of a Village

These books by M.C. Beaton featuring highland police constable Hamish Macbeth are always light and entertaining, although now that I have discovered a good reader for the audio versions (Graeme Malcolm), that is really my preferred mode because he gets the accents just right! As usual, Hamish is ever so much smarter than those in the police hierarchy above him and manages to solve crimes, small and large, where others fail to even see a crime is being committed. Here he uncovers an insurance scam involving local shop keepers, a more serious conspiracy at a nearby retirement community in which the residents are apparently being killed off in order to gain title to their property, and then a whole town that has been terrified into silence by some ruthless and clever thieves who are plundering a sunken WWII sub off the coast. As usual Hamish does not want to take credit for the crimes he solves because then he would be promoted and have to leave his lazy life in the village of Lochdubh, where he raises sheep and chickens and occasionally poaches fish from the forestry lands. So he usually manages to shift this onto another person involved or else break just enough rules to get reprimanded but not arrested. He has the predictable problems with women in this episode with local reporter Elspeth Grant being the primary player, and the Currie sisters spreading their typically muddled mix of gossip to muddy the waters.