Customer Reviews:
 All's Fair in Love, Job Seeking, and Murder June 15, 2007
Donald Mitchell (Boston)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Death of a Poison Pen represents a new high in the Hamish Macbeth series in terms of integrating a number of different story lines in neat and interesting fashion. Long-time fans of the series will find this book to be one of their favorites.
Jenny Ogilvie is jealous of her London colleague, Priscilla Halburton-Smythe. Priscilla is engaged to be married while Jenny has just lost her boy friend when she mentions marriage. Yet Priscilla seems obsessed with her old friend (and former unofficial fiancé) from Lochdubh, Police Constable Hamish Macbeth, and the cases they've worked on solving together. Jenny decides she would like to disturb Priscilla's cool exterior by attracting Hamish's attention. Feigning illness, she heads for Lochdubh.
Once there, Jenny is disappointed to see that Hamish doesn't fit her idea of a handsome Highlander . . . and is engaged in speaking with Elspeth Grant, a local reporter and astrologer. A lot of funny scenes follow as Jenny chases Hamish and ends up being paired instead with new reporter, Pat Mallone, who had fancied Elspeth until Jenny arrived.
But Jenny remains obsessed with the idea of solving a crime . . . even if Hamish ignores her. In the background, Jenny's London-based ideas of how to live keep getting her into trouble with the Highlanders.
Elspeth, in the meantime, finds her interest in Hamish to be dwindling as he continues to avoid becoming involved. But she recognizes Jenny as a rival and finds he competitive juices stoked.
There are also some goofy poison pen letters being received in Lochdubh and Braikie. Mrs. Wellington, the minister's wife, got one accusing her of having an affair with Hamish. Well, hardly! Hamish holds a meeting in Braikie to get copies of the notes and signatures on a petition so he can get the police in Strathbane to spend the money for a handwriting expert.
In the middle of this comedy of errors, the atmosphere turns dark when Miss Beattie, who ran the post office in Braikie, is found dead with a poison pen letter under her body. As usual, Hamish is soon disputing with Detective Chief Inspector Blair whether Miss Beattie's death is suicide . . . or murder. Before the book is over, the bodies start to pile up.
Hamish finds himself in the middle of trying to solve mysteries without earning promotion, fending off women who want him, and keeping naive people from getting into trouble. You'll enjoy the mysteries and the twists in the book.
At her best, M. C. Beaton has a fine talent to exploring irony. She draws deeply on that talent in this fine book. Enjoy!
 More trouble for Hamish January 6, 2005
L O'connor (richmond, surrey United Kingdom)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
Hamish Macbeth is a self-effacing village policeman who just wants a quiet life, and lives in perpetual dread of being promoted and having to move to Strathbane, or , even worse, Glasgow. The trouble is he is brilliant at solving crimes and has difficulty hiding his light under a bushel.This time he has to investigate a nasty case of poison-pen letter writing, everyone is being targeted, and then one of the letter-writer's victims apparently kills herself, but Hamish is convinced it's murder. As well as solving the crime, Hamish has to cope with Jenny Ogilvie, a friend of his old flame Priscilla, who has come to the Highlands to check him out, and is disappointed to find him less glamorous than she imagined. Hamish is an engaging hero, and there are plenty of likeable supporting characters, and lots of humour, not to mention a charming Highland setting, which make his adventures enjoyable to read. In this episode, he finally manages to get it together with the lovely Elspeth, but unfortunately the tiresome Priscilla turns up at the end of the book. I do hope Hamish isn't going back to her, Elspeth is a much more interesting character.
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