Death of Yesterday (Hamish Macbeth Mysteries)
In the twenty-eighth installment of this series, murder once again disrupts Scottish Highlands Sergeant Hamish Macbeth’s quiet routine of loch gazing and tending to his massive dog and wild cat. In the best tradition of the cozy, whoever is either new to the village or is the least popular resident (Macbeth patrols two villages—Cnothan and Lochdubh—along with great swatches of countryside) is always the next to go. The first victim here is a completely graceless, acerbic young woman, an art student working at a Highlands clothes factory during the summer, who seeks out Macbeth to report that she was raped the previous night. Macbeth follows up on the charge, finding intriguingly confusing bits of information about her. Three weeks later, her body is found in a dumpster outside the factory. And, as the number of murder victims rises, Macbeth does what he does best: ignore the bureaucratic grumblings of his superiors in the ugly big city of Strathbane, follow his instincts, and demonstrate the fine art of interviewing. Completely satisfying. --Connie Fletcher