Macbeth and the Loudmouth Bully
Review of the Blackstone Audio Inc. audiobook edition (2020) of the Mysterious Press hardcover original (1997)

Death of a Macho Man finds a new incomer intruding on the calm of Lochdubh village and its local constable Hamish Macbeth. Hamish is riled up enough to agree to a fisticuffs duel with the braggart and loudmouth Randy Duggan, but the supposed macho man is found murdered before the fight can happen. As usually, Hamish has to sort through a long list of likely suspects among all of the people that the victim had antagonized.

For whatever reason, this early Macbeth (#12) was not available on Audible but I was able to source it from the Overdrive audiobook system at my Toronto Public Library.

This edition has the excellent narration of early series regular Shaun Grindell. The later books of the series are narrated by Graeme Malcolm. ( )

Enjoyed the story, and the onward progression of the characters ( )

Typical Hamish Macbeth story. Very well read, as usual.

Light, quick read. ( )

Central to this mystery is the death of a hulking, bragging, bodybuilding type. Randy Duggan styled himself an American professional wrestler. He spends his nights boasting in the pub. He ends up drugged and stabbed in the back. In comes the incompetent Blair, delighted because Hamish is in trouble for challenging Duggan to a fight.

I generally enjoy these books, but in this one I found Hamish to be annoying and incompetent. He nearly gets himself fired for challenging someone to a fight, and he engages in a variety of other tactics well outside the boundary of police procedure. I also found Blair really difficult to comprehend in this book. It's impossible to understand how he keeps his job. This one just didn't grip me the way some of the others have. Beaton has done better. ( )

"... Now 'one of the warmest and quirkiest mystery series around' pits Constable Macbeth against a belligerent newcomer to Lochdubh, a bully flaiming to be a professional wrestler, who soon finds himself KO'd into the next world ...

"Everybody in Lochdubh knew about the pro who dubbed himself the Macho Man. The huge, tattooed, mean-looking stranger won a willing audience for his bragging and tall tales by buying round after round at the local pub. But his nasty insults led to some vicious fights. His sneaking about the village aroused angry suspicions that he was fooling with some Lochdubh wives. And his sneerintg challenge to policeman Hamish Macbeth to a public bout triggered the constable's own temper, not to mention an epidemic of bookmaking.

"As the day of the big fight approached, excitement engulfed Lochdubh. At least half the village was betting on the Macho Man, eagerly anticipating Hamish to take a bloody pounding and perhaps lose his job. Then, on the night of the great event, the wrestler was found shot to death in his cottage. Hamish was both off the hook and in the doghouse.

"To save both his career and his life, Constable Macbeth has to delve into the shadowy --and unsavory -- past of the Macho Man. The trail leads to the unexpected: the hidden lives and buried secrets of a salty fisherman, a reclusive romance writer, a respectable matron, a restauranteur'[s wife, and even Hamish's ex-fiancee Priscilla Halburton-Smythe and her newest boyfriend.

"Hamish is sure that the murder of the Macho Manh was a crime of passion. He just isn't sure whether the passion was lust, greed ... or vengeance. One thing is certain, thought. M.C. Beaton has written another outstandingt mystery that exp0ertly peruses the pleasures of Scotland and the landscape of the human heart."
~~front and back flaps

Great mystery read, even if a bit far-fetched in places. Those who seem too good to be true often are, and those who seem too gullible to live often don't. And those who don't know how to listen to their own hearts often suffer heartache. ( )