‘They were the Blane sisters, the Misses Blane. Rogers said they took a small house for themselves in Skag. Might call on them, if I can find them.’
‘So Harris is worse now?’ pursued Hamish.
‘He was bad enough last year, but in fits and starts. Didn’t go on like he does now the whole time. Maybe he’ll have settled down by tomorrow. Doris Harris wanted to come with us, but he ranted on at her when you were upstairs getting your dog about wasting good money on fish and chips when she had already eaten.’
There was a scream of delight from the Brett children. Heather had placed the three-year-old Fiona on Towser’s back. Towser was standing patiently, looking puzzled, his eyes rolling in Hamish’s direction for help.
‘Leave him be,’ shouted Hamish. Heather obediently lifted Fiona off Towser’s back and Towser lolloped up the beach and lay panting at Hamish’s feet.
‘Time I got those kids in bed,’ said June. ‘They’ve been on the train all day.’
‘Come far?’ asked Hamish.
‘From London.’
Dermott got to his feet and brushed sand from his trousers. He walked up to the children and swung the toddler on to his shoulders. June joined him, and the family set off together in the direction of the boardinghouse.
‘That’s a nice family,’ said Miss Gunnery, returning from a rubbish bin on the other side of the shingle, where she had put the papers. ‘Perhaps we should be getting back as well.’
‘Whit aboot the night-life o’ Skag?’ sniggered Cheryl. ‘Me and Tracey’d like a drink.’
‘How old are you?’ demanded Miss Gunnery severely.
Cheryl tossed her long blonde hair. ‘Old enough,’ she said. Her heavily made-up eyes flirted at Hamish. ‘Aye, old enough fur anything, isn’t that right, Tracey?’
‘Sure is,’ said Tracey in a dreadful imitation American accent. ‘So let’s just mosey along to the pub.’
‘Bound to be bottled beer up here,’ said Andrew, ‘but I’m willing to try it. What about you, Hamish?’
‘As long as they’ll let Towser in.’
‘He’s married tae his dug!’ shrieked Cheryl.
Hamish’s thin, sensitive face flushed angrily. He was ashamed of his affection for his dog, ashamed sometimes of Towser’s yellowish mongrel appearance.
‘I think a drink’s just what we all need,’ said Andrew quickly. ‘Come along, Hamish.’
Hamish had a sudden desire to sulk. But Miss Gunnery said, ‘I saw the pub near the harbour. It looked quite pretty. I think I’ll go after all.’ She linked a bony arm in Hamish’s as he stood up and the small party set off.
It was a pretty thatched pub with tubs of flowers at the door, more like an English inn than a Scottish one. But inside it was as plastic and dreary as the worst of Scottish pubs. A jukebox blared in the corner and a spotty moron was operating the fruit machine with monotonous regularity, his mouth hanging open as he fed in the coins. Hamish had noticed a table and chairs outside and suggested they take their drinks there. Cheryl and Tracey had rums and Coke, Miss Gunnery, a gin and tonic, Andrew, a bottle of beer, and Hamish, a whisky and a bag of potato crisps for Towser.
‘There’s a carnival here tomorrow,’ said Hamish. ‘Sideshows and everything. I saw a poster about it on the pub wall.’
‘I didn’t see a fairground,’ said Andrew.
‘It’ll be here tomorrow all right,’ said Hamish, wise in the ways of Highland gypsies. ‘They come in the night like a medieval army and the next day, there they all are.’
They finished their drinks and walked slowly back to the boarding-house. Cheryl and Tracey had decided to compete for the attention of Hamish Macbeth and so they walked arm in arm with him while Miss Gunnery and Andrew followed behind.
When they went into the boarding-house, Hamish collected a couple of paperbacks from the bookshelves in the lounge and went up the stairs to his room.
It was then that he found out that the Harrises had the room next door. Bob Harris’s voice rose and fell, going on and on and on, punctuated by an occasional whimper from his wife.
Hamish wondered whether to go next door and tell the man to shut up, but as a policeman he had found out the folly of interfering in marital problems. Doris would probably round on him and tell him to leave her husband alone.
Or rather, that’s what the lazy Hamish Macbeth told himself.
Death of a Nag
M. C. Beaton
A busman’s holiday for Hamish …
After losing both his chances of promotion and the lovely Priscilla Halburton-Smythe, Hamish Macbeth decides the best cure for a broken heart is a week’s break at the charming coastal village of Skag. When he arrives at the ‘Friendly House’ B&B, however, he finds the ambience chilling, the food inedible and his fellow guests less then neighbourly. They include the annoying Miss Gunnery, a family from London, and Bob Harris, who so nags his wife that everyone wants to kill him. And then somebody does.
Now it is up to Hamish to act; to dig deep into the past and deliver something more daunting than merely the culprit: justice.
‘The detective novels of M. C. Beaton, a master of outrageous black comedy, have reached cult status.’
Anne Robinson, The Times
March 2009
Paperback £6.99
978–1–84529–732–9
www.constablerobinson.com
Death of a Macho Man
M. C. Beaton
The twelfth book in the Hamish Macbeth murder mystery series
Everybody in the Scottish Highlands village of Lochdubh knows Randy Duggan as the Macho Man. Duggan brags about everything he has done, and even claims to have been a professional wrestler. His insults at the pub have caused brawls while his furtive sneaking around has aroused suspicion that he has been romancing a number of the Lochdubh wives.
When Hamish tries to break up a brawl, Duggan challenges him to a public fist-fight. The villagers are taking bets on the winner when, on the day of the scheduled fight, Duggan is found shot to death.
Amid all the excitement it’s up to level-headed Hamish to track down the heartless killer of the brutal Macho Man …
‘Looking for an escape? Tired of waiting for Brigadoon to materialize? Time for a trip to Lochdubh … where M. C. Beaton sets her beguiling whodunits featuring Constable Hamish Macbeth.’
New York Times Book Review
May 2009
Paperback £6.99
978–1–84529–907–1
www.constablerobinson.com
To order your copies of other books in the Hamish Macbeth series simply contact The Book Service (TBS) by phone, email or by post. Alternatively visit our website at www.constablerobinson.com.
No. of copies Title RRP Total
Death of a Gossip £5.99
Death of a Cad £5.99
Death of an Outsider £5.99
Death of a Perfect Wife £5.99
Death of a Hussy £5.99
Death of a Snob £5.99
Death of a Prankster £5.99
Death of a Glutton £5.99
Death of a Travelling Man £6.99
Death of a Gentle Lady £6.99
Death of a Nag £6.99
And the following titles available from spring 2009 …
No. of copies Title Release Date RRP Total
Death of a Witch Feb 2009
(hardback) £18.99
Death of a Macho Man May 2009 £6.99
Death of a Dentist May 2009 £6.99
Death of a Scriptwriter July 2009 £6.99
Death of an Addict July 2009 £6.99
Death of a Celebrity Sept 2009 £6.99
Death of a Dustman Sept 2009 £6.99
A Highland Christmas Nov 2009 £6.99
Death of a Village Nov 2009 £6.99
Death of a Poison Pen Nov 2009 £6.99
Death of a Bore Feb 2010 £6.99
Death of a Witch Feb 2010
paperback) £6.99
Death of a Dreamer Apr 2010 £6.99
Death of a Maid Apr 2010 £6.99
Grand Total £
The Hamish Macbeth series
Death of a Gossip
Death of a Cad
Death of an Outsider
Death of a Perfect Wife
Death of a Hussy
Death of a Snob
Death of a Prankster
Death of a Glutton
Death of a Travelling Man
Death of a Charming Man
Death of a Nag
Death of a Macho Man
Death of a Dentist
Death of a Scriptwriter
Death of an Addict
A Highland Christmas
Death of a Dustman
Death of a Celebrity
Death of a Village
Death of a Poison Pen
Death of a Bore
Death of a Dreamer
Death of a Maid
Death of a Gentle Lady
Death of a Witch
Copyright
Constable & Robinson Ltd
3 The Lanchesters
162 Fulham Palace Road
London W6 9ER
www.constablerobinson.com
First published in the USA by Warner Books, a subsidiary of Hachette Book Group
This edition published by Robinson, an imprint of Constable & Robinson, 2009
Copyright © M. C. Beaton 1994, 2009
The right of M. C. Beaton to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
A copy of the British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available from the British Library
ISBN : 978–1–78033–211–6
Death of a Charming Man Page 21