Death of a Chimney Sweep (Hamish Macbeth Mysteries Book 26)

This plot seems a bit more scattered than most Macbeth mysteries. At the same time, the profusion of subplots keeps things pretty exciting.The scene of the first and second murder is the grim Highlands village of Drim. The owner of a manse is murdered, and the chimney sweep working on the smoking chimney is murdered too.More bodies turn up, because killer has to keep killing to cover his tracks. Macbeth’s investigations take him to Edinburgh and Glasgow, where he must operate unofficially so as not to enrage the local police. Hamish dons a disguise at one point. He’s rather proud of his talent for disguise!The women he has loved and lost turn up now and then to help him. His pet wildcat and blue-eyed dog also help. Death of a Chimney Sweep is a thoroughly engaging read.

Gotta love a story where a cat is jealous of other females. Sonsie is a treasure a truly loved her human Hamish.Great story. Don't want to ruin it by saying too much.

Readers of this series know that Hamish Macbeth has a wildcat as a pet. Sousie is very protective of Hamish. She has her chance in this book to save him again. Although Hamish has dinner dates with both Priscilla and Elsbeth, nothing romantic develops.

This is the 26th in the Hamish Macbeth Mystery series and I eagerly await each new book. While some of the books may be better reading than others, the setting and descriptions of the small villages and scenery in the North of Scotland is always fresh and interesting. In this installment Macbeth travels from his home base of Lochdubh to the village of Drim to investigate a murder. A vacant Georgian mansion which had been on the market for five years was recently sold to Captain Henry Davenport and his wife, Milly. Captain Davenport was found dead stuffed up his chimney with the chimney sweep, Pete Ray, being the prime suspect. Macbeth's investigation takes him to Edinburgh in pursuit of suspects. There are the usual romantic complications for Macbeth who is a committed bachelor. These cozies make for fast and fun reading on a cold winter's day.

Murder visits Lochdubh, a tiny town so completely and richly imagined that you will be tempted to google it. Every returning character is an old friend, every bap and cup of tea fully savored, you can smell the Atlantic and the Heather. Beaton delights in bumping off the “murderee”. I love the weather and the Highlands and a detective ( Constable Macbeth) with great pets ( Sonsie and Lugs).

Ms Beaton is one of my favorite authors. Her characters are quirky, smart, and interesting. I love Hamish MacBeath and have read all her books about this detective in the last 20 years or so, but I chose to get both the Kindle version and Audible version of this book as the cost was so reasonable.I chose to start reading this book on vacation, so either read the Kindle or played the Kindle and got through the story way too quickly, but I really enjoyed the experience.Macbeth seems like a simple small town detective, but his experienced eye and quick brain can surprise you. But listening to the book speaking his words in a Scottish accent take the book a notch higher! I intend to add the audible more often. The characters are clever and the plot is just tangled enough to make the book interesting.

Love the series!!

The real mystery of this book is where is MC Beaton? By the time I had read the first third of the book I found myself wondering if MC Beaton had even written the book. The title of the book has little, if nothing to do with the mystery that unfolds. The death of the chimney sweep wasn't even the main death in this book. Had it been developed more fully it would have made a much more interesting book. Instead, so many outside characters were introduced and killed off within two or three paragraphs that it was confusing. The charming characters of the village were given little more to do than to ring the church bells and feed Hamish's pets. The one village character who was developed was Angela Brody, the doctor's wife. She has taken up writing books and has had some mild success at it. Unfortunately her storyline and the mystery have nothing to do with each other. All in all this was not a good entry into the Hamish MacBeth series. It felt like it was written in a hurry without much thought to development of character or surroundings. I look forward to Ms. Beaton's books and feel let down when they are disappointing. I agree with other reviewers who would like her to slow down, stick to the Scottish highlands with occasional visits to bigger cities and develop characters. I would willingly wait longer for a well-witten book than read a badly-written book sooner.

Having come back to the Hamish Macbeth series after a break (with a 33-book series, it's too expensive to buy all in one "hit", so I purchase a couple at a time), I was really disappointed in this book.Did MC Beaton employ a "ghost writer" (if so, they obviously hadn't read the rest of the series - or completely missed the point), or did she write this one for the American audience (as, apparently, it was published in the US first), forgetting the needs of Hamish's British fan base?Whatever the reason, all the charm & fun was missing from this book. Instead of the usual whimsical descriptions of Highland life and characters, this book just seemed to lurch from one murder to another - and those murders seemed to have no reasoning behind them. SPOILER ALERT : Even the eventual demise of the main villain left a sour taste.Even the title made no sense - although a chimney sweep was murdered, that death was almost a "sideline" - hardly a reason to make it the title of the book.I am determined to finish the series, so hope that the remaining books go back to the original formula - and make me chuckle again!

I enjoy reading the Hamish Macbeth mysteries - as another reviewer has said, they are cosy. Coming from Scotland I enjoy the local nuances and language, however this also creates many of its problems. The Scottishisms are clichéd and Beaton uses the same awful ones over and over again (the sibilance coming into Hamish's voice immediately springs to mind). The characterisation of Scottish people is often very accurate, but the wee bits of 'flavour' which may have been amusing in the first 10 books have started making me cringe.The actual stories have never been particularly well written - certainly not clever, but comfortable, enjoyable easy-reading. This one was slightly poorer than others and I was less interested in the case. I'm also revolted that it came out months earlier in America than in Britain, simply for the reason that it appeals so highly to the sort of people Beaton derides in the books (tweedy Englishmen venturing to Scotland because they think its quaint, dreamy etc.)If you have read and enjoyed all the other Macbeths then you may find this quite enjoyable, but they are certainly on the decline....

I have lots of M C Beaton's Hamish Macbeth books, (and Agatha Raisin). The prose style can sometimes be irritatingly staccato, with several very short sentences following each other instead of the words flowing smoothly along. The plot of Death of a Sweep is very disappointing. The sweep himself is almost irrelevant. Death of a Conman would have been more apppropriate. Hamish's actions throughout are simply not credible, and the actions of the criminals flitting around on false passports with fake credit cards dumping corpses all over the place are just plain silly. This one has rather put me off buying any more, which is a shame, because I am fond of Hamish.

I started reading about Hamish Macbeth after I had read all of the Agatha Raisin books. He is as annoyingly addictive as she. Quick and easy read mysteries although I have to say I prefer the books in the beginning of the series and feel that some of the later storylines are clutching at straws and a bit second rate as far as storylines go but I have got quite fond of the characters and will continue to read as and when a new book comes out which the author is probably banking on.

Although this book is called Death of a Sweep, the Sweep himself doesn't really appear much in the story. Having said that the story is very good, with some real evil people in it.The character Milly Davenport I found was a bit irritating at times as she just couldn't stand up for herself or make her mind up herself. Is that really the result of being married to a domineering husband? At least in the book it is the husband that gets murdered.A very easy book to read. Although I have to say I've read better ones. Would recommend.