Tuesday 28 August 2007

Review: Death of a Perfect Wife by M.C. Beaton

I loved Hamish Macbeth. What with the show's general quirkiness and Robert Carlyle's smouldering smoulderingness, what was there not to love??

So perhaps it was not much a surprise that, when entering the ABC shop with a $25 in gift vouchers and finding the whole series reduced to $2 each, I bought the set of books upon which the TV series was based (well at least 8 of them). Unfortunately, the books did not grab me. At all. Apart from Hamish, many of the other characters are not there, or are greatly altered. Alex exists as the rather proper Priscilla Halburton-Smythe and there's no Isobel to speak of. Priscilla's father is a very one dimensional foe who disapproves of Priscilla's friendship with Hamish. Hamish's superior Blair is much the same - blustering and stupid and boring. Hamish is a ginger!!!

(Actually I don't care about that, I'm upset because he's so wet when it comes to Priscilla! And he's not Robert Carlyle...)

Worst of all, the books are so very very twee.

I read them all, but then they languished on my shelf for the better part of 10 years. I was unwilling to read them, but also unwilling to break up the set by bookcrossing them. However, I realised on the weekend that they're all in excellent condition and therefore very moochable. I put em all up and 'Death of a Perfect Wife' was mooched yesterday. I reread it that evening just to check.

Unfortunately it hadn't improved with age, but at least it was a quick read.

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