From Publishers Weekly
In bestseller Beaton's devilishly droll 24th mystery to feature police constable Hamish Macbeth (after 2008s Death of a Gentle Lady), the Scottish Highlands most stubborn (and romantically challenged) bachelor returns to his home village of Lochdubh from a disappointing vacation to discover a witch stirring up trouble. To Macbeth's annoyance, the sex-starved local men have fallen under the spell of Catriona Beldame, who turns out to be a runaway bride with a shady past. Macbeth longs to prove she's selling illegal (and bogus) remedies for sexual dysfunction, and warns her to stop if she is. Macbeth gets a shock when someone murders Beldame and sets her house on fireβsoon after Macbeth is overheard to say he'd like to kill her. Three more murders of other women quickly follow. Could a serial killer be loose in sleepy Lochdubh? As usual, Beatons crisp plotting and effervescent humor complement Macbeth's deft crime solving. (Dec.)
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From Booklist
Hamish Macbeth, a hulking Highlander cop somewhat akin to James Herriottβs Yorkshire veterinarians in his attachment to the land, has refused or resigned from every promotion offered over the past 23 novels, so that he can stay in his beloved village, Lochdubh, with its harsh beauty and eccentric inhabitants. But the outside world keeps intruding, adding bite to Beatonβs cozies in multiple ways: the vicious police hierarchy; the effect of Strathbane, an ugly city, spreading its tentacles into the Highlands; and the horrific nature of contemporary crime, such as the importation of Eastern European prostitutes/slaves. In Beatonβs latest, Macbeth investigates the murder of a woman who dispensed kidney-inflaming herbal aphrodisiacs to a string of Lochdubh men. More murders follow in the village, against the usual backdrop of Macbeth trying to sort out his love life. Lochdubh has a ridiculously high homicide rate for a tiny village, but it provides readers with a great deal of atmospheric fun. --Connie Fletcher