DEATH OF A VALENTINE

Police officer Hamish MacBeth finds himself in danger, and not just from a cold-blooded killer.

Despite his sleuthing success (Death of a Witch, 2009, etc.), Hamish has dedicated his life to keeping a low profile in order to stay in Lochdubh, his beloved Highland village. But now he’s been promoted to sergeant and had a constable foisted on him. The newcomer is pretty Josie McSween, who requested the job because she imagines herself in love with Hamish. When local beauty queen Annie Fleming is blown up by a letter bomb on Valentine’s Day, Josie is more concerned with plots to capture Hamish’s heart than with solving the case. Annie hid many secrets from her deeply religious parents, including drug use and a series of men. The case escalates when Annie’s heroin-dealing boyfriend is murdered after a raid on the local club where he hangs out is a bust. Suspecting that the owner was tipped off by a crooked cop, Hamish becomes the next target of a hired hit man; only his loyal pets save him from certain death. Meanwhile, an ever more desperate Josie, who’s taken to drink, hatches a plot to drug Hamish, climb into bed with him and claim to be pregnant. He has a better chance of finding the killer than of escaping Josie’s nefarious plot to trick him into matrimony.

The Highlands’ most famous bachelor has a narrow escape in Beaton’s amusing update on the irresistible Hamish and his coterie of friends and ex-loves.