Hamish Macbeth, the lone police officer in the small Scottish village of Lochdubh, ends up solving a mystery that stretches far outside of the boundaries of his little town. He is, as usual, romantically stunted and underappreciated and misunderstood by just about everyone. He's also just as unmotivated as ever. He still hangs out with the regular cohorts, all of whom exhibit basically the same behavior as ever.
I don't know if my tastes have changed or if M.C. Beaton is just running out of steam, but I didn't find this book as satisfying as I have found her previous ones to be. Beaton's mystery plotting is still as full of twists and turns (some quite clever) as ever, but her writing feels stilted and even a little bit forced (it's going too far to suggest that Beaton is "phoning it in", but that phrase keeps running through my head). Hamish isn't growing as the years pass--he is the same as ever. In a series that's been going on as long as this one, if the main character doesn't change a little, I think the books get stale. I won't return again to Lochdubh, unless I'm re-reading the first dozen or so books, which I remember enjoying so much.
If, however, you are just discovering Hamish Macbeth and his activities, and are gobbling up every book in the series, you will find this an inoffensive (Note: Hamish considers allowing himself to be seduced, but then rejects the idea and he also commits a crime that he hides) and consistent addition to the accounts of this village policeman.
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