A review by ncrabb
Death of a Travelling Man by M.C. Beaton

3.0

Just when I’m sure I’ve paid my last visit to the charming albeit sometimes sinister Scottish village of Lochdubh, I find another of these little gems to take me there. There are lots of things that concern the lovable but lazy inspector Hamish Macbeth. He’s been promoted to sergeant as a result of his success in a previous case, and he’s not entirely sure he likes the promotion, since it carries added responsibility. One of those responsibilities is a new employee, Willy Lamont, who cleans and tidies up far better than he engages in actual police work. Hamish is given to a more comfortable existence with less emphasis on having things super clean.

Ah, and then there is the lovely and far-too-distant Priscilla. Is this possibly the book where that distance finally narrows? She’s actually helpful in the solution of the murder.

As to the murder, the dead guy is Sean Gourlay, a traveller. Macbeth knows he’s a con artist, but many of the women in town don’t figure that out in time. As a result, money goes missing, the marriage of the town doctor is increasingly troubled, drugs are missing from the doctor’s cabinet, and what’s up with the local minister?

This was a fun and somewhat hard to believe book in spots, but worthy of the short amount of time you’ll spend with it.