Death of a Cad book review

Death of a Cad by M.C. Beaton
Series: Hamish Macbeth #2
Published by Warner Books on July 1, 2004
Pages: 214
Goodreads

From the author of the Agatha Raisin television series...DEATH OF A CAD: A Hamish Macbeth MysteryWhen Priscilla Halburton-Smythe brings her London playwright fiancé home to Lochdubh, everybody in town is delighted . . . except for love-smitten Constable Hamish Macbeth. Yet his affairs of the 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 many titled party guests as the prime suspects, each with a reason for snuffing out the despicable captain, Hamish must smooth ruffled feathers as he investigates the case. When the hidden culprit strikes again, Hamish will find himself trying to save Priscilla from a miserable marriage-and catch a killer before he flies the coop.

I have made a habit of reading the M.C. Beaton series one after the other so I can compare the two properly. The first book in this series blew me away and it actually became my favourite when choosing between Hamish Macbeth and Agatha Raisin. However this book kind of swapped that perception, I struggled with this one, I felt as though this book was a lot slower than the other and the characters weren’t as interesting as the first one and I think I struggled all the way through. Hamish Macbeth seemed to get pushed around and almost into the background with the other drama that was happening throughout the book. Which is probably why I didn’t like this one half as much.

Obviously, this one surrounds Hamish Macbeth and we get to see more of Priscilla Halburton-Smythe and I’m not sure that this is a good thing. I wish that the Death of a Cad had been more focused on the town and the politics that was happening at the time. I do struggle with the snobbery that seems to run rampant all the way through this book. I didn’t sympathise or connect with any of the characters and that’s what I struggled with. It was hard to read the entire book without actually caring about any of the characters or their future. I wish there had been a one redeemable character in the story.

I think the best bit of Death of a Cad was definitely how ingenious the murder was and the way everything was made out to be an accident and beautifully so. I loved the way that the whole thing was worked out and the truth was found out. I did enjoy the gossip and the interactions of the characters at the various parties, I thought it was quite telling and also quite a good indicator of the type of people Hamish was dealing with. I also love that there were some really humourous moments throughout this one and they mainly involved Hamish, which seems to be a running theme in these books.

The worst bits of Death of a Cad for me was definitely the fact that Hamish seemed to take a little bit of a backseat in this story for me and we had to deal with a lot of romantic feelings which kind of distracted me from the actual murder and the reasons behind it. Plus there doesn’t seem to be much chemistry between the two people in question and I had really wished that they had just left that part out of the story and I could have had a decent story without all of that drama!

Even though this book wasn’t my favourite book so far I am still going to read the next ones in the series. I still think this will be one of my guilty pleasure reads and if not I have the Agatha Raisins to read!

Have you ever hit a snag early on in a series? What series was it and did you manage to get through it? Let me know in the comments.