So many holiday books are set at Christmas time it’s definitely more a challenge to find one based around a different holiday or celebration. Death of a Valentine has been sitting on my bookshelf for a couple of years now. I bought it as a gift for someone and ended up choosing a different book to send them. It fitted the prompt and cleared another book from the tbr.

What it’s about?

Amazing news has spread across the Scottish countryside. The most famous of highland bachelors, police sergeant Hamish Macbeth, will be married at last. Everyone in the village of Lochdubh adores Josie McSween, Macbeth’s newest constable and blushing bride-to-be.

While locals think Josie is quite a catch, Hamish has a case of prenuptial jitters. After all, if it weren’t for the recent murder of a beautiful woman in a neighbouring village, there wouldn’t be a wedding at all. For it was a mysterious Valentine’s Day package–delivered to the victim before her death–that initially drew Hamish and Josie together on the investigation. As they work side by side, Hamish and Josie soon discover that the woman’s list of admirers was endless, confirming Hamish’s suspicion that love can be blind, deaf . . . and deadly.

What I think:

This book is absolute nonsense! But it is entertaining and a quick read.

The amount of crime in a small Scottish village is quite staggering! And the serious and complex nature of the crime is completely undermined by the light-hearted tome of the book.

This is the 25th book in the Hamish Macbeth series and admittedly the first one I have actually read, Macbeth himself is not actually a very pleasant character – I did not warm to home at all.

And even worse is Josie. She is absolutely hideous – deluded, manipulative, and completely irritating.

The only reason I stuck with this was because of the sheer unbelievability of the whole thing! At one point, a lion escapes! I came away wondering what an earth I had just read and why this series got to so many books!

I have really enjoyed M. C. Beaton’s Agatha Raison series, but this was not for me. I don’t know if it is a weak spot in the series or if the rest of Hamish Macbeth adventures are in a similar vein – not sure I’ll bother to find out!