Death Of A Nurse
M.C. Beaton
Grand Central Publishing 2015
Reading at least one Hamish Macbeth mystery by M.C. Beaton is pretty much a must if you are a fan of the genre. Beaton has created an interesting and original cozy series about the adventures of a policeman in the village of Lochdubh in northern Scotland. Death of a Nurse is the 32nd book in the series and as good a place to start enjoying the series. Death of a Nurse (A Hamish Macbeth Mystery Book 31) on KIndle
In this installment, Police Sergeant Hamish Macbeth investigates the death of a young nurse working for a wheelchair bound wealthy man. She is soon found dead and suspects are aplenty. The secondary plot line involves a new officer, an inspector named Fiona Herring who has a fling with the officer thus complicating things. A second and then a third murder also make things harder for Macbeth.
Death of a Nurse by M.C. Beaton also features a rather wide cast of regular. They include Hamish’s former fiancee Priscilla, reporter Elspeth Grant, DCI Blair who has been out to get Macbeth since the first novel, and DI Jimmy Anderson who is more than willing to discuss cases over a bit of whisky.
There is one rather jarring plot element in Death of a Nurse. Someone tries to rape an important secondary character. The incident is quickly dismissed by sending a goon warn off the would be rapist. This is too big an incident to be so quickly dismissed and it is hard to figure out why Beaton included it in the first place.
If you like the cozy, Death of a Nurse by M.C. Beaton is a fun read.