Rambling About.. MC Beaton's Death of a Cad

Title: Death of a Cad     Author: M. C. Beaton Publication: February 1987 -- St. Martin's Press Format: epub -- BookBazaar Reader (149 pages) First Line: Henry Withering, playwright, slumped down in the passenger seat of the station wagon after another bleak look out at the forbidding landscape. Favorites on 4s: 4 - When he had asked her to marry him, all she had felt was a giddy elation at having done the right thing at last; at having finally found someone who would please her parents. 24 - Priscilla bit her lip. Somehow it had never crossed her mind even to turn her back while Hamish was changing his trousers. 64 - Was this what the future held for him? Chatting away in the evenings to a spoilt mongrel? 84 - "I could smell him from here -- fear-sweat. Angry, blustering, ranting people are usually frightened." 104 - "She'll be drooping around the castle by tonight, trying to queen it over the rest of us as if she's some sort of femme fatale, instead of the worn-out trollop she really is." 124 - "The only thing I'm taking to bed tonight is a hot-water bottle."

Ramble: I'm still mad-crushing on Hamish Macbeth. I had read the first in the series back in August and had lamented then that the non-relationship between Hamish and Priscilla was driving me crazy. In this book it's even worse since Priscilla is engaged to be married to someone other than Hamish and her parents have invited a whole slew of people to their estate in order to meet him and celebrate. I was hoping that the "cad" mentioned in the title would end up being him ... but with no such luck. Of course, practically everyone in attendance at the party has motive for wanting the victim dead and it is Hamish who steps up to solve it all in spite of most viewing him as a simple bobbling village bobby.

There wasn't as much humor here as there was in the first book, but I chalk that up to the somberness surrounding the engagement. It's difficult for Hamish to be witty when the girl he adores is set to live happily-ever-after with someone else. Priscilla also seemed greatly diminished in spunk aside from the few times that she and Hamish were alone. There are moments of coffee-snorting-worthy humor, just not as much as there had been .... and, hopefully, not as much as there will be.

The 32nd book in the series is set to be released the end of this month. I think I may need to do some serious adjusting to my monthly reading thing so it doesn't take me the next decade to catch up!