Hamish Macbeth

When Priscilla Halburton-Smythe brings her London playwright fiancé home to Lochdubh, everyone in town is delighted... except for love-smitten Hamish Macbeth. Yet the affairs of his heart will have to wait.

Vile, boorish Captain Bartlett, one of the guests at Priscilla's engagement party, has just been found murdered - shot while on a grouse hunt. Now with so many titled party guests as prime suspects, each with their own reason for snuffing out the despicable captain, Hamish must smooth ruffled feathers as he investigates the case... and catch a killer, before they fly the coop!  Book 2 of series.

The most hated man in the most dour town in Scotland is sleeping with the fishes, or - more accurately - has been dumped into a tank filled with crustaceans. All that remains of the murdered victim are his bones. But once the lobsters have been shipped off to Britain's best restaurants, the whole affair quickly lands on the plate of Constable Hamish Macbeth.

Exiled to the dreary outpost of Cnothan, Macbeth sorely misses his beloved Lochdubh, but before he can head back home he has to contend with a detective chief inspector who wants the murder hushed up, a dark-haired lassie who is out to seduce him, and a killer who has made mincemeat of his last victim, and will no doubt strike again...  Book 3 of series.

Hamish Macbeth is savouring the delights of a Highland summer, but as fast as the rain rolls in from the loch his happy life goes to hell in a handbasket.

The trouble begins when his beloved Priscilla Halburton-Smythe returns to Lochdubh with a new fiancé on her arm. His miseries multiply when clouds of midges descend on the town. And then a paragon of housewife perfection named Trixie Thomas moves into Lochdubh with her cowed husband in tow.

The newcomer quickly convinces the local ladies to embrace low-cholesterol meals, ban alcohol and begin bird-watching. Soon the town's menfolk are up in arms and Macbeth must solve Lochdubh's newest crime - the mysterious poisoning of the perfect wife.  Book 4 of series.

Maggie Baird is neither kind or generous, but she is very, very rich. So when her car catches fire, with her inside it, there are five likely candidates for the role of murderer. All five had been houseguests at her luxurious Highlands home - Maggie's timid niece and four former lovers, one of whom Maggie had intended to pick for a husband.

All five are utterly broke and all had ample opportunity to tamper with Maggie's car. So finding out who did it will require all of PC Hamish Macbeth's extraordinary common sense and insight into human nature; especially when the killer appears to be the wrong person entirely...  Book 5 of series.

When Jane Wetherby offers PC Hamish Macbeth a holiday at her 'Happy Wanderer' health farm on the isle of Eileencraig, he is more than happy to accept.

Unfortunately the visit doesn't prove to be the pampering experience he had been hoping for. Windswept Eileencraig is inhabited by hostile islanders, many of whom would be more than happy to be rid of the 'Happy Wanderer' and its proprietor.

And the company at the health farm is hardly better. The volatile party includes an ex-husband, an illicit lover, and Morag Todd, an unadulterated snob who criticizes everybody and everything. So when Morag is found lying at the foot of a cliff with a broken neck, no one seems too broken up about the event - leaving it up to Hamish to solve the death of a snob.  Book 6 of series.

When police constable Hamish Macbeth receives the news that there has been a murder at Arrat House, home of the relentless practical joker Arthur Trent, he doesn't race to the scene of the crime. After all, last time he was called to investigate a death at the isolated Scottish manor, the 'victim' turned out to be Trent's manservant covered in fake blood.

Thus prepared for another prank, Hamish arrives to find that Trent has been most decidedly murdered and for suspects there is a houseful of greedy relatives, all of whom are more than interested in the contents of the will rather than the crime at hand. And when the Chief Inspector arrives on the scene and his former flame, Priscilla Halburton-Smythe, gets involved as well, Hamish quite clearly has his hands full.  Book 7 of series.

There's not a cloud in Hamish Macbeth's sky - just plenty of warm sunshine but not quite enough of the lovely Priscilla Halburton-Smythe. But as eight hopeful members of the Checkmate Singles Club converge on Tommel Castle Hotel for a week of serious matchmaking, the clouds roll in. 

The four couples, carefully matched by dating director Maria Worth, immediately dislike one another. And the arrival of Maria's gross, greedy business partner, Peta, kills the last vestige of romance. And as love goes out the window, murder comes in the door.

Peta soon slurps up her last meal and Hamish is left with the baffling puzzle: Who shared the fateful outing that left Peta dead with a large rosy red apple in her mouth...  Book 8 of series.

It's springtime in the Highlands but storms are brewing for Hamish Macbeth. His life is going to pot. He has - horrors! - been promoted, his new boss is a dunce, and a sinister self-proclaimed gypsy and his girlfriend have parked their rusty eyesore of a van in the middle of the village.

Hamish smells trouble and as usual he's right. The doctor's drugs have gone missing. Money vanishes. And neighbours suddenly become unneighbourly. Nobody wants to talk either, so canny Hamish faces the delicate task of worming the facts out of the villagers.

In the process he uncovers a story so bizarre that neither he nor the locals may ever be able to forget it...  Book 9 of series.

Now that Priscilla Halburton-Smythe has agreed to marry him, Police Sergeant Hamish Macbeth can't imagine a more perfect life. There's not much crime in his remote Scottish village of Lochdubh, nothing much at all to do but fish, drink coffee, and slouch around. And now to spend time with lovely Priscilla. 

But his days aren't as tranquil as his dreams. This might be a good time to find out why Peter Hynd's arrival in nearby Drim was causing so much trouble.

An attractive, unmarried man with an independent income would always attract attention in such a small place. But this time Hynd's arrival seems to have caused bitter rivalry among the women of Drim. Hamish finds their petty fights amusing at first, until death threats, physical abuse, and murder make statistical history in one of Scotland's most picture postcard-perfect towns.  Book 10 of series.

In the seeming quiet of the Highlands many secrets are hidden, and when a TV star attempts to further her career by exposing them she becomes the most hated woman around. When she is found dead, Hamish Macbeth has to discover who the murderer is.  Book 17 of series.

PC Hamish Macbeth can't help but admire the resourcefulness of the Highlanders during the Recession - in tough times they have to lure tourists to their sleepy towns and the quaint village of Braikie has come up with a novel solution. It really doesn't have that much to offer apart from a place of rare beauty called Buchan's Wood, which the clued-up local tourist board director has rechristened 'The Fairy Glen' and has had brochures printed with a beautiful kingfisher rising from a lake on the cover.

It isn't long before coach tours begin to arrive but just as the town's luck starts to turn, a kingfisher is found hanging from a branch in the woods with a noose around its neck. As a wave of vandalism threatens to ruin Braikie forever it is up to Hamish to get involved... and his investigation quickly turns from mistreatment of birds to murder...  Book 27 of series.

No one in Lochdubh expects Dorothy to stay for long... She is, after all, entirely unsuitable. She's an uptown girl, used to a fancy lifestyle in the big city of Glasgow. And how is that work-shy rogue Hamish Macbeth supposed to get anything done when his new assistant is such a distraction? The village needs a police sergeant who can get on with his job, not one who's constantly swooning over his pretty young constable.

Yet PC Dorothy McIver quickly shows how determined she is to win over the locals, and she certainly seems to bring out the best in Macbeth. Then comes a brutal murder and the pair find themselves plunged into a tangled web of conspiracy that acquires a sinister strand when the chilling shadow of Glasgow's underworld creeps to the Highlands and the peaceful village of Lochdubh.  Book 34 of series.

In dark, wintry Lochdubh, Christmas Cheer is about as welcome as a flat tyre on a deserted road. The Calvinist element in town has always resisted what they view as secular frivolity, so for most of the townsfolk there'll be no carols, feasting, gifts - or even whisky on Christmas Day!

And for PC Hamish Macbeth there's no holiday from crime - he finds himself hunting for a missing cat belonging to a lonely spinster. Curt and unfriendly, the woman is convinced her pet has been stolen but once behind her heavily-bolted door, Hamish can spot her true problem - she lives in fear, though of who or what he cannot guess.

Then someone steals a Christmas tree and lights from the nearby village of Cnothan. So it is up to Hamish to sort all these problems out - and he had better do it quickly, for the church bells will soon peal on the eve of Christmas.