Book Summary and Reviews of Death of a Maid by M. C. Beaton

Death of a Maid by M. C. Beaton

Death of a Maid

A Hamish Macbeth Mystery

by M. C. Beaton

  • Critics' Consensus (1):
  • Published:
  • Feb 2007, 256 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Mrs. Gillespie is famous for being the best maid in the northwest of Sutherland. But to Hamish Macbeth, she is a malicious gossip who bangs around the furniture and clanks pots. When Hamish wins Mrs. Gillespie's services in a church raffle, he spends most of the day trying to avoid her. He doesn't understand how she managed to gain such a fine reputation. Then she is found dead, struck down violently by a metal bucket of water. Knowing Mrs. Gillespie's penchant for gossip, Hamish is sure she delighted in finding out her clients' secrets--which means that everyone whose home she cleaned is a suspect.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

Beaton's enjoyable 22nd Hamish Macbeth mystery....[a] funny, unpredictable read." - PW.
"As usual, Beaton delivers a delightfully old-fashioned, absorbing village mystery." - Booklist".
"The faithful won't mind that Hamish's amours this time take second place to his detecting skills. " - Kirkus.

This information about Death of a Maid was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

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Author Information

M. C. Beaton Author Biography

M. C. Beaton has written over twenty Hamish Macbeth mysteries (starting with Death of a Gossip 1985). She is also the author of the Agatha Raisin series (starting with Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death 1992) and is a film commentator on BBC television. She lives in a Cotswolds cottage (mid-west England) with her husband, journalist Harry Scott.  A former journalist for daily newspapers, she now devotes her time to writing fiction.  Under her own name, Marion Chesney, she also writes Regency romances, and has also written under a variety of other pseudonyms: Sarah Chester, Helen Crampton, Ann Fairfax, Marion Gibbons, Jennie Tremaine, and Charlotte Ward.

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