Stabbed & stuffed in a closet... 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 doesnt 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 Trents manservant covered in fake blood. Thus prepared for another prank Hamish arrives to find that Trent has been most decidedly murdered & 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 h&. & when the Chief Inspector arrives on the scene & his former flame Priscilla Halburton-Smythe gets involved as well Hamish quite clearly has his hands full. ...

Stabbed & stuffed in a closet... 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 & 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 h&. & when the Chief Inspector arrives on the scene & his former flame Priscilla Halburton-Smythe gets involved as well Hamish quite clearly has his hands full. ...

In the spring of 1948 Arthur Miller retreated to a log cabin in Connecticut with the first two lines of a new play already fixed in his mind. He emerged six weeks later with the final script of Death of a Salesman"
- a painful examination of American life & consumerism. Opening on Broadway the following year Miller's extraordinary masterpiece changed the course of modern theatre. In creating Willy Loman his destructively insecure anti-hero Miller himself defined his aim as being 'to set forth what happens when a man does not have a grip on the forces of life.'"
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The Heinemann Plays" series offers contemporary drama & classic plays in durable classroom editions. Many have large casts & an equal mix of boy & girl parts. This modern tragedy concerns a salesman who at the end of his life is forced to face its futility & failure." ...

Patricia Martyn-Broyd now in her seventies has retired to the Highlands. She hasnt written a word in years & 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 doesnt care to mix with the locals she cant 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 & scurrilous scripts & 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 & when she is accused of murdering the scriptwriter & the leading lady she turns to her one friend in Lochdubh Hamish Macbeth to help her. ...

On 12 May 2009 Margaret Evison's son Lieutenant Mark Evison of 1st Battalion The Welsh Guards died of wounds sustained whilst leading a patrol in Helmand Province. Hailed a hero Mark's death was a national sacrifice his grave to be one of many in the identical ordered rows in a military cemetery. But to his mother Margaret it was the most intimate of griefs. In Death of a Soldier she attempts to reconcile her own unanswerable sense of loss with the idea that her son died for a good cause. With her we confront the horror of his death & witness her struggle to see epithets such as 'heroic' & 'noble' as more than a mask to hide that ugliness. Included in the book is Mark's diary kept while he was in Afghanistan & delivered to Margaret at home some weeks later. Widely"ed since its discovery it contains the thoughts of a sensitive young officer & serves as a poignant reminder of the terrible human cost of the war in Afghanistan. Death of a Soldier is an extraordinarily powerful tribute to Mark & a testament to Margaret's great love for him. It paints a portrait of Mark's short but accomplished life bringing his extraordinary character into relief & underlining the loss suffered by all who knew him. Whilst this is a book about the nature of grief it is also the story of a mother's struggle to understand how & why her son came to die & as such it touches on issues of public interest. As Margaret eloquently demonstrates that mixture of the personal & political is what uniquely characterises the death of a soldier. Articulate revealing & at times almost unbearably moving this is an important reflection on loss war & our responsibilites to those we send to fight. ...

Every night Hester Monk tends to women of the streets who have been injured as a result of their trade. But the injuries are becoming more serious & now a body has been discovered in one of the area's brothels. The dead man is the respected head of a successful railway company Nolan Baltimore. With calls for the police to clean up the streets Hester decides she must intervene to protect these women who stand to lose everything. Meanwhile her husband William Monk is investigating a possible fraud at Baltimore & Sons. As Monk endeavours to prevent a serious crime from taking place he faces some staggering revelations & finds that the time has come to confront his own demons
- even if it means losing all he holds dear...
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In the south of Scotland residents get their chimneys vacuum-cleaned. But in the isolated villages in the very north of Scotland the villagers rely on the services of the itinerant sweep Pete Ray & his old-fashioned brushes. Pete is always able to find work in the Scottish highlands until one day when Police Constable Hamish Macbeth notices blood dripping onto the floor of a villager's fireplace & a dead body stuffed inside the chimney. The entire town of Lochdubh is certain Pete is the culprit but Hamish doesn't believe that the affable chimney sweep is capable of committing murder. Then Pete's body is found on the Scottish moors & the mystery deepens. Once again it's up to Hamish to discover who's responsible for the dirty deed
- & this time the murderer may be closer than he realizes. Praise for the Hamish Macbeth" series: " The much-loved " Hamish Macbeth" series beguiling blend of wry humour & sharp observations about rural life." (" Good Book Guide"). " It's always a special treat to return to Lochdubh". (" New York Times Book Review"). " The detective novels of M C Beaton a master of outrageous black comedy have reached cult status." (Anne Robinson " The Times")."
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Its springtime in the Highlands but storms are brewing for Hamish Macbeth. His life is going to pot. He has
- horrors!
- been

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Amazing news is spreading like wildfire across the Scottish countryside: the most famous of all Highland bachelors police sergeant Hamish Macbeth is planning to marry at last! Everyone in the village of Lochdubh adores Josie Mc Sween Hamishs newest constable & blushing bride-to-be. While locals think she is quite a catch Hamish has a severe case of pre-nuptial jitters...after all if it wasnt for the recent murder of a beautiful woman in a neighbouring village there wouldnt be a wedding in the first place. For it was a mysterious Valentines Day card
- delivered to the victim before her death
- which initially drew Hamish & Josie together in the investigation. & now as they work side by side they soon discover that the womans list of admirers was endless
- confirming Hamishs suspicion that love can be deaf blind...and deadly.


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