DEATH OF A CAD

A second adventure (Death of a Gossip, 1985) featuring the craggy Scottish landscape, a warm Scottish brew and red-haired village constable Hamish Mac beth, who yearns after Priscilla, daughter of Tommel Castle's Colonel Halburton-Smythe. Priscilla's engagement to playwright Henry Withering, newly famed for Duchess Darling, a current smash, is being celebrated with a house party at the castle. Guests include rich, hard-drinking Jeremy Pomfret; banker Freddie Forbes-Grant and sexy, mercenary wife Vera; china collector Sir Humphrey Throgmorton; aging debs Diana Bryce and Jessica Villiers; and Captain Peter Bartlett, a handsome, boorish Don Juan whose early morning demise by shotgun is unmourned by most. Eventually, it's Hamish who proves that the death was murder, not an accident. The poison killing of another guest, plus some inspired sleuthing in London, brings him to a formal, well-reasoned denouement al the house party's final gathering. Hamish is a gem. He deserves better than the ninnyish Priscilla and a lifetime with dog Towser in Loch Dubh village. Let's move him on! Featherweight, satisfying fun.