Death of a Liar

One crime leads to another for Hamish Macbeth, an affable police officer in the Scottish Highlands. After a woman in a nearby village reports an assault and he finds she is a pathological fibber, he ignores her appeal for help when she fears an intruder. But then she is murdered. Before long the case broadens with further violent deaths. Among the newcomers to Hamish’s beat, the leading suspects are the schoolteacher and her husband and the young Polish woman who seems too good and beautiful to be true.

Death of a Liar marks the thirtieth in MC Beaton’s mystery series. Familiar characters play their customary roles, among them Patel the village shopkeeper, the elderly spinster twins, the curmudgeonly sage, girlfriends past and present, and the police superintendent who resents his sergeant’s popularity and ability.

Hamish has never stood alongside Morse or Maigret but his gentle humor, his bizarre pets, and his lack of ambition make him an appealing hero. The Highlands setting has a special magic despite the changeable weather intruding a little overmuch this time and the plot demanding more attention and offering less substance than usual.