- Mass Market Paperback: 198 pages
- Publisher: Little, Brown and Company; Reprint edition (17 Oct 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0446606987
- ISBN-13: 978-0446606981
- Product Dimensions: 10.5 x 1.6 x 17.1 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 456,423 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Death of a Scriptwriter (Hamish Macbeth)
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Product Description
Book Description
A Hamish Macbeth mystery.
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
Product Description
Patricia Martyn-Broyd, now in her seventies, has retired to the Highlands. She hasn’t written a word in years and her books are out of print. But now a television company is about to film her last detective story, featuring the aristocratic Scottish detective Lady Harriet Vare. Even better, a London publisher is bringing the book into print. Even though the snobbish Miss Martyn-Broyd doesn’t care to mix with the locals she can’t help but share her excitement with local policeman Hamish Macbeth. Imagine her horror when Miss Martyn-Broyd discovers that Lady Harriet Vare is portrayed as a pot-smoking hippy, that the screenwriter is known for his violent and scurrilous scripts and that Lady Harriet is going to be played by the scene-stealing trollop Penelope Gates. But a contract is a contract, Ms Martyn-Broyd quickly learns and when she is accused of murdering the scriptwriter and the leading lady, she turns to her one friend in Lochdubh, Hamish Macbeth, to help her.
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
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Patricia Martyn-Broyd had not written a detective story in years. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Patricia Martyn-Broyd had not written a detective story in years. Read the first page
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
In "Death of a Scriptwriter," M.C. Beaton brings us the fourteenth installment of the Hamish Macbeth series--and she is in her element!
Set in the Scottish Highlands, in the village of Lochdubh, this series is a nice read--nothing too complicated, full of local Scottish color (with both its characters and its setting), lots of delightful red herrings, and logical solutions. This series, the titles of which always begin with "Death of a...," is quite a successful one and one which takes little time to read. Macbeth, the local constable, is proud of the fact that he is not an ambitious soul. Despite the fact that he has solved thirteen previous murders, he is still a constable. He refuses to be promoted as he claims he is too happy in Lochdubh to want to advance to a larger city. He is filled with lots of common sense and while often the villagers give him a hard time ("He's too lazy," they claim.), they highly respet him and have come to his rescue more
than once.
He's not so lucky with his own love life, however, and seems to fall in love with any woman who shows interest. The real love, Priscilla Smythe-Halliburton, has moved to London, after he had broken off the engagement, and appears intermittently in all the books of the series.
In "Death of a Scriptwriter," a television crew appears in Macbeth's bailiwick to film a novel written by an English spinster who has moved to Lochdubh. Her books were never much of a success, but this one was picked up by the BBC. She is delighted that at long last, fame is coming her way. She is so overjoyed that she fails to retain the complete rights to her book; a screen writer is hired to "modernize" the plot and characters (in other words, to add lots of sex and violence to the rather staid Victorian tale). Disagreements among the TV crew members erupt and, viola, the screenwriter (an impossible sort, unliked and unloved by anybody, and quite impossible to work with) is found dead; shortly thereafter, the star of the film (who is to appear nude in some scenes) is killed when she "falls" off a boulder; her alcoholic husband has also been found dead! (Bodies seem more plentiful than the last act of "Hamlet"!) Everyone seems to be a suspect! Macbeth, in his plodding, but thorough way, of course, leads us to the conclusion, wherein all deaths are solved, and the reader then is set up to await the next installment.
This book is a fun-read. Ms Beaton is in her element--she's writing about what she seems to know a lot about herself--authors, screenwriters, and television crews (this series is being filmed in England and we can only hope that A&E or PBS will bring it to us over here!). Beaton devotees will love this one!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A television film crew descends on nearby dour Drim, the village "a living grave with resident ghouls". Elderly Patricia Martyn-Broyd's genteel detective novel is being dramatised, she unaware of the raunchy updating with a porn star as its lead....
Here is a volatile group comprising director, producer, stars, extras, long suffering assistants. Inflated egos, posturing frauds, ominous undercurrents are rampant - conditions ripe for a death or two. Scriptwriter Jamie Gallagher, an odious drunken bully, is the first to go - he found with crows pecking out his eyes. Hamish Macbeth discovers the body but, as usual, is shoved aside as blustering DCI Blair takes over the case.
One can imagine M.C. Beaton chuckling as she wrote this fourteenth adventure - the television crew that adapted her Hamish Macbeth stories, of course, NOTHING like this lot. Admittedly, though, they DID make many changes which irritated lovers of the books - the series nonetheless immensely popular. Watch out for one or two in-jokes. Plockton in Ross is suggested as a possible location. ("Plockton!" sneered Jamie. "Thon village has been used in two detective series already.") In fact it doubled as TV Hamish's Lochdubh. Anxious to challenge the restraints inflicted on peak time weekend viewing, Jamie asks, "Who the hell is going to object to pot smoking these days?" (Controversy flared when it was leaked Robert Carlyle's Hamish would be doing that on screen.)
The fun here includes the wily, unconventional constable continuing to hack into DCI Blair's computer (the everchanging password always an expletive), a minister's wife destined to shock her dour control freak husband, Hamish yet again triumphing as his bosses gape.
Yes, this is a glorious addition to the series - M.C. Beaton and Hamish both at their best.
Here is a volatile group comprising director, producer, stars, extras, long suffering assistants. Inflated egos, posturing frauds, ominous undercurrents are rampant - conditions ripe for a death or two. Scriptwriter Jamie Gallagher, an odious drunken bully, is the first to go - he found with crows pecking out his eyes. Hamish Macbeth discovers the body but, as usual, is shoved aside as blustering DCI Blair takes over the case.
One can imagine M.C. Beaton chuckling as she wrote this fourteenth adventure - the television crew that adapted her Hamish Macbeth stories, of course, NOTHING like this lot. Admittedly, though, they DID make many changes which irritated lovers of the books - the series nonetheless immensely popular. Watch out for one or two in-jokes. Plockton in Ross is suggested as a possible location. ("Plockton!" sneered Jamie. "Thon village has been used in two detective series already.") In fact it doubled as TV Hamish's Lochdubh. Anxious to challenge the restraints inflicted on peak time weekend viewing, Jamie asks, "Who the hell is going to object to pot smoking these days?" (Controversy flared when it was leaked Robert Carlyle's Hamish would be doing that on screen.)
The fun here includes the wily, unconventional constable continuing to hack into DCI Blair's computer (the everchanging password always an expletive), a minister's wife destined to shock her dour control freak husband, Hamish yet again triumphing as his bosses gape.
Yes, this is a glorious addition to the series - M.C. Beaton and Hamish both at their best.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A film crew looking for a location in which to film a new detective series for television calls in on Hamish who recommends them to try the nearby village of Drim which has a suitably sinister appearance. He also thinks it might liven up the villagers a little.
The author of the books on which the new detective series is to be based lives locally and is not very popular with the locals because she is a bit of a snob. With a drunken scriptwriter, a leading lady played by an actress who is more famous for her body than her acting ability and a minister's wife who is just about at the end of her tether the scene is set for mayhem if not murder.
Hamish himself joins in the search for the missing scriptwriter though as ever he is not allowed to take part in the murder enquiry thanks to his objectionable superior - Blair. But that doesn't stop him talking to people and having his own opinion about who did it. I enjoyed this story which is rather darker in its elements than some of this series.
Hamish's well known knowledge of human nature is much in evidence as is his attention to detail. Of course he is still pining for the lovely Priscilla but that doesn't stop him looking for another girl friend. Recommended to anyone who likes their crime stories to be based on character.
The author of the books on which the new detective series is to be based lives locally and is not very popular with the locals because she is a bit of a snob. With a drunken scriptwriter, a leading lady played by an actress who is more famous for her body than her acting ability and a minister's wife who is just about at the end of her tether the scene is set for mayhem if not murder.
Hamish himself joins in the search for the missing scriptwriter though as ever he is not allowed to take part in the murder enquiry thanks to his objectionable superior - Blair. But that doesn't stop him talking to people and having his own opinion about who did it. I enjoyed this story which is rather darker in its elements than some of this series.
Hamish's well known knowledge of human nature is much in evidence as is his attention to detail. Of course he is still pining for the lovely Priscilla but that doesn't stop him looking for another girl friend. Recommended to anyone who likes their crime stories to be based on character.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
The worst Hamish Macbeth Book EVER WRITTEN
This was. for me, a terrible terrible book. I am not denying that it did start off very well, enough for me to want to continue. BUT... Read more
Published 1 month ago by JohnMcM
THE PLOT THICKENS...
From the moment that a group of filmmakers arrive in a town near the village Lochdubh in northern Scotland, Constable Hamish Macbeth has his hands full. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Lawyeraau
Cosy crime-solving
I much prefer Hamish Macbeth to Agatha Raisin and - for me - Death of a Scriptwriter is one of M.C. Beaton's most enjoyable books. Read more
Published 10 months ago by T. Bently
Death of a scriptwriter
I haven`t read this book yet - too busy - v.good condition and excellent service. Recommend this sellar/ Anne
Published 17 months ago by E. A. Irwin
Brilliant
I love the Hamish Macbeth books, they are supebly written and keep my interest to the very last page then I can't wait to start the the next one. Read more
Published 22 months ago by A. Unitt
really good read
another really good fun mystery - same as all MC Beaton books - but I love them all
Published on 5 Mar 2010 by Mrs. Melanie J. Cartwright
Good entertainment
if you are looking for an easy to read mystery for on the train or whenever you can spare a moment, this is the one for you. Read more
Published on 29 May 2008 by Brigitte
Very Funny!
Lochdubh's finest, the ease-loving Police Constable Hamish Macbeth, finds himself wanting to help others reduce their loneliness in Death of a Scriptwriter. Read more
Published on 9 May 2007 by Donald Mitchell
This is a dull book with predictable characters.
I have not read any book in this series before. Perhaps other books by this author are better. However, "Death of a Scriptwriter" is mystery by the numbers. Read more
Published on 15 Aug 1999
Excellent book
This is the first book I read by this author and thought it was quite entertaining. I read the entire book in one day and would have liked it to be a little longer. Read more
Published on 3 Aug 1999
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