Death of a Prankster
-
-
4.1 • 98 Ratings
-
-
- $7.99
Publisher Description
From the New York Times bestselling author of the Agatha Raisin television series, travel to the Scotland Highlands with a classic Hamish Macbeth cozy mystery.
Admittedly, there's a touch of black humor in the case. Rich, old practical joker Andrew Trent summons his kin to remote Arrat House in the dead of winter for a deathbed farewell. They arrive to find him in perfect health and eager to torment them with a whole new bag of unfunny jokes.
But this time the body that falls out of the closet is Andrew Trent's own. And nobody's laughing. Especially not Constable Hamish Macbeth, who is hard put to glean any information from Trent's unappealing nearest and dearest. And when the lanky constable's former flame, Priscilla Halburton-Smythe, inserts her beautiful self into the case, Hamish must muster all his native guile to carry him through.
Fortunately, he has a few clever tricks up his own sleeve, which enable this most endearing of crime fighters to get the best, and last, laugh.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Scottish constable Hamish Macbeth, following Death of a Gossip in his seventh case, once again nails a murderer despite the crude bullying and dim detecting of his nemesis and superior, Chief Detective Inspector Blair. Wealthy local Andrew Trent, notorious for practical jokes that have far exceeded short-sheeted beds and whoopee cushions, has summoned his would-be heirs to his northern mansion with the false announcement that he has only a short time left to live. Braving the Highlands winter are his adopted son and his TV-star fiancee, two spinster daughters, his brother (with his brittle wife) and his scientist stepson (with his punk, pink-haired girlfriend and colleague). After Andrew is murdered in a prank that backfires, Macbeth wends his way through a tangle of family squabbles and secrets. Another murder and an attempt on a third victim follow in this readable tale that doesn't, however, bear close scrutiny. Illogic abounds and the final confession is precipitated by a wild coincidence.
