Death of a Dentist but you know the drill
Many of us would like our dentists to meet an untimely end so that we can get out of an appointment we dread. Yet when the suffering Scottish policeman Hamish Macbeth is desperately in need dental care, it would have been better if the said victim had chosen another time to be murdered.
Macbeth visits the dentist in Braikie (Braikie being 20 miles from his home base of Lochdubh which did not have a dentist), named Gilchrist, even though the word-of-mouth is that he only knows how to pull teeth. There's a real dentist in Inverness but of course that's a longer drive and he'll cost more.
Alas, just when Macbeth was to see Dr. Gilchrist, he turns up dead in his own dental chair with a nasty bit of revenge drilling done on his own teeth. The doctor's, that is.
Not only does Macbeth have to chase down a murder while trying to ignore his mouth pains, he also has a robbery to solve. Someone broke into a safe and took two-hundred-and-fifty thousand pounds in 20-pound notes. It was to be the bingo prize in the huge annual jackpot that drew players from miles around. A crime wave and a cary crisis all in one week, too much for poor Hamish.
Gilchrist was a bit of a ladies' man, who liked to buy flashy clothes and cars. Was he being pressed for debts, or was there a woman scorned somewhere in the past? Is there any connection between the two crimes? On the surface there doesn't appear to be. Yet after a couple hundred pages, Macbeth does unravel the whole tale. You'll have to read it to find out what it was.
Many of us would like our dentists to meet an untimely end so that we can get out of an appointment we dread. Yet when the suffering Scottish policeman Hamish Macbeth is desperately in need dental care, it would have been better if the said victim had chosen another time to be murdered.
Macbeth visits the dentist in Braikie (Braikie being 20 miles from his home base of Lochdubh which did not have a dentist), named Gilchrist, even though the word-of-mouth is that he only knows how to pull teeth. There's a real dentist in Inverness but of course that's a longer drive and he'll cost more.
Alas, just when Macbeth was to see Dr. Gilchrist, he turns up dead in his own dental chair with a nasty bit of revenge drilling done on his own teeth. The doctor's, that is.
Not only does Macbeth have to chase down a murder while trying to ignore his mouth pains, he also has a robbery to solve. Someone broke into a safe and took two-hundred-and-fifty thousand pounds in 20-pound notes. It was to be the bingo prize in the huge annual jackpot that drew players from miles around. A crime wave and a cary crisis all in one week, too much for poor Hamish.
Gilchrist was a bit of a ladies' man, who liked to buy flashy clothes and cars. Was he being pressed for debts, or was there a woman scorned somewhere in the past? Is there any connection between the two crimes? On the surface there doesn't appear to be. Yet after a couple hundred pages, Macbeth does unravel the whole tale. You'll have to read it to find out what it was.
Great series by M.C. Beaton. I love the Hamis Macbeth series the most. This book opens with Ham waking up to a toothache and it only gets worse...when he finds the dentist murdered, is almost killed himself but he keeps searching until he finds the murderer.
Great series.
Great series.
Another of the MacBeth series of Highland flings in mystery. Light, quick read especially enjoyable to anyone who enjoys bagpipes and low-flung clouds above heather.
Hamish MacBeth keeps Lochdubh free of crime and murder
With a raging toothache, Hamish McBeth finally gives in and goes to the local dentist despite his unsavory reputation. Despite the pain in his jaw, it wasn't a good decision; someone had poisoned Dr. Gilcrist and left the body for Hamish to find. As if he didn't have enough to think about, facing his first date since his fiance, Pricilla, broke it off.
Bobbi Z. (zpegasus) - , reviewed Death of a Dentist (Hamish MacBeth, Bk 13) on + 67 more book reviews
Amazon.com
In this addition to Beaton's series featuring unassuming Scottish policeman Hamish Macbeth, Hamish finds himself precipitated by a vicious toothache into the world of Dr. Frederick Gilchrist. Gilchrist is a local dentist best known for his eagerness to replace healthy teeth with inexpensive dentures, and infamous for his hard hand on the drill. Maggie Bane, his lovely assistant with a harsh and unlovely voice, surprises Hamish with her hostility, but he is even more astonished to find the dentist's dead body reclining in his chair with mysterious drill marks on his teeth.
Delving deeper into the village's rural dish in search of the murderer, Macbeth uncovers long-buried relationships, an illicit local still, a robbery that is not what it appears, and the expected deceptions and partial truths his countrymen tell the police for reasons only a local character like Hamish can understand. Once again, he has occasion to contact his former love, the adamantine Priscilla Halburton-Smyth, and her friend, Sarah Hudson, even helps Hamish hack into police records for his investigation.
Macbeth's efforts bustle charmingly along against the background of quirky Scots dialect and rustic pubs. And Beaton's tangled web of a mystery is tidily resolved to the satisfaction of the locals and, surely, for all the devoted fans of this winning series. --Barbara Schlieper
From Library Journal
Desperate for relief, Scottish constable Hamish Macbeth takes his toothache to a nearby dentist with a lousy reputation. Unfortunately, he discovers the man dead of nicotine poisoning. As he investigates, Hamish finds that the victim had many enemies, including his own wife. A reliable series (Death of a Macho Man, LJ 6/1/96).
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
In this addition to Beaton's series featuring unassuming Scottish policeman Hamish Macbeth, Hamish finds himself precipitated by a vicious toothache into the world of Dr. Frederick Gilchrist. Gilchrist is a local dentist best known for his eagerness to replace healthy teeth with inexpensive dentures, and infamous for his hard hand on the drill. Maggie Bane, his lovely assistant with a harsh and unlovely voice, surprises Hamish with her hostility, but he is even more astonished to find the dentist's dead body reclining in his chair with mysterious drill marks on his teeth.
Delving deeper into the village's rural dish in search of the murderer, Macbeth uncovers long-buried relationships, an illicit local still, a robbery that is not what it appears, and the expected deceptions and partial truths his countrymen tell the police for reasons only a local character like Hamish can understand. Once again, he has occasion to contact his former love, the adamantine Priscilla Halburton-Smyth, and her friend, Sarah Hudson, even helps Hamish hack into police records for his investigation.
Macbeth's efforts bustle charmingly along against the background of quirky Scots dialect and rustic pubs. And Beaton's tangled web of a mystery is tidily resolved to the satisfaction of the locals and, surely, for all the devoted fans of this winning series. --Barbara Schlieper
From Library Journal
Desperate for relief, Scottish constable Hamish Macbeth takes his toothache to a nearby dentist with a lousy reputation. Unfortunately, he discovers the man dead of nicotine poisoning. As he investigates, Hamish finds that the victim had many enemies, including his own wife. A reliable series (Death of a Macho Man, LJ 6/1/96).
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
