Death of a Nag

The Hamish Macbeth Mysteries, Book 11

By: M. C. Beaton

Narrated by: Shaun Grindell

Length: 6 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's Summary

Hamish Macbeth, constable in the small Scottish Highland town of Lochdubh, is feeling down after losing both his promotion and his girlfriend, the town beauty, Priscilla Halbourton-Smythe. A trip to a charming seaside inn with his dog, Towser, is meant to raise his sagging spirits. 

Instead, he arrives at “Friendly House” to find the ambiance chilling, the food inedible, and his fellow guests less than neighborly. There’s an amorous spinster, two flirty girls, a retired military man, a secretive London family, and Bob Harris, who so nags his wife, Doris, that everyone wants to kill him. Then somebody does. 

Soon Macbeth is called upon to act - to dig into the past and deep into the heart to deliver something more daunting than merely the culprit: Justice.

©2020 Blackstone Publishing (P)2020 Blackstone Publishing

Disappointed in Death of a Nag

I was so excited to find that this title, number 11 in a 33 book series of Hamish Macbeth, was finally in an audio book form. I pre ordered it despite the fact that there was no information on the reader or length of time for the book.
I have listened to all of the titles available (though not all on Audible), and love the character of Hamish as well as the normally excellent writing of M. C. Beaton.
There have been at least 4 different readers associated with the series-two are very good: Anthony Ferguson, who read only the first two books, and Graeme Malcolm, who has read most of the latter books in the series. In the middle was one book by Davina Porter (returned) and the rest have been read by Shaun Grindell.
Now, to the problem. I really don't understand how someone could decide to create a voice for a very tall, attractive policeman who was "chased by all the ladies in the village", and make him sound like a 13 year old little girl. At first I thought he just couldn't have that many voices in his repertoire, and yet he had many male voices he could and should have used. In fact, he had female voices in this book that were lower than the one he used for Macbeth. It drove me mad! I stopped several times in total frustration and thought about returning the book, but ultimately would continue because of the story.
I gave the story 2 stars because when a reader is so off the mark, I find it so distracting that I lose interest in listening, and thus my opinion of the story suffers. It probably isn't fair to M. C. Beaton. She writes great mysteries. This one, however, due entirely I think to the performance, is going back to Audible. I do recommend all those read by Graeme Malcolm.

Enjoying all the books in the series

I'm enjoying this whole entire series so far. I've even gone as far as to Google the places in Scotland only to find out that it's a fictional place. Lol. Great story, great pace, great narration.

Narration was simply a disappointment

Hamish, the main character, sounded more like a woman in pain. A truly awful listen.

One of the best Hamish books so far!

Hamish learns a lot about himself and proves to be a very very good, empathetic, and kind man. And he solves a murder- as always.

Shaun Grindell is great. The book was good

The writing is excellent and the narrator brings it to life better than anyone else could

Hamish is a bit of a stick

This story was OK. The solution was not surprising. Both the murderer and the likely key to identifying the murderer were very apparent for most of the book. It was entertaining though, and the writing was the right level for this kind of book. If Hamish were one pen’s worth more appealing as a character, I might even have given this another star, but he’s just such a basic bic— even his endearing love for his dog can’t make up for his constant casual misogyny and unrelenting, unreflective judgement of everyone but himself

He’s shallow and selfish, and not in an entertaining way, and that lets the book down

Slow

I wasn’t a fan of the narrator on this book. He talked so slow. Normally, I would have stopped a book I was listening too that so slow but I want to finish the series in order. Very disappointed with his narration.

One of her best

This is one of her older books and such, has a very compelling plot and avoids the tropes she fell into for her later books. If you’ve liked her other books, you should love this one . Blessings!