Book Review: Death of a Green-Eyed Monster by M. C. Beaton and R. W. Green (2022)

Synopsis: Things finally seem to be going right for Sergeant Hamish Macbeth. He remains in his beloved town of Lochdubh and to the surprise of many, his beautiful constable, Dorothy McIver has agreed to marry him. However, a few days before the wedding, a murder and an attempted murder put a dark cloud over the upcoming ceremony. To make matters worse, many of Hamish's friends begin to suspect Dorothy isn't being completely honest with her fiancé about her past. 

Review: I was surprised to see Death of a Green-Eyed Monster when I was at the library last week. With M. C. Beaton's passing in 2019, I assumed Death of an Honest Man would be the final Hamish Macbeth book. So, seeing a new chapter in his story, written with the help of another writer while Beaton was still alive, was something I thought was intriguing. Though, admittedly, I also had some doubts about the book as well.

I finished reading it early this morning and, while it did prove to be a lot better than I was expecting, it also left me with mixed emotions.

As far as the story goes, I thought it was as good as most other Hamish Macbeth mysteries. Since the murder victim was a stranger to town, it was unclear why they were murdered, other than some potential connection to a crime syndicate out of Glasgow. There also happened to be another person in town at the same time, James Bland, who seemed to be a bit too innocent even though there was nothing to indicate he was involved, as well as a soldier who clearly was hiding something but didn't seem like the type to be a killer.

The mystery surrounding Dorothy only added to this because each passing chapter made it look like she might be involved in some way, but it was unclear if she was a bad guy or if she was just a red herring. The latter seemed more likely but at the same time, when was the last time Hamish Macbeth was lucky in love?

The overall style of writing was exactly what I would expect from one of Beaton's books, with as much time spent on the various quirks of Lochdubh's citizens and Hamish's pets. I also liked how the book spent time letting the romance between Hamish and Dorothy develop before there even was a murder to solve. It made the whole thing a lot more believable than if the book just skipped over that.

With all that said, my biggest problem with this book is the ending. Without getting into too much detail, it was an ending that left me feeling heartbroken and I don't say that a lot. Normally, that is something I'd be OK with. However, as I mentioned when I reviewed Death of an Honest Man, that book's ending would have been the perfect way to end the series. Now I just need to hope R. W. Green is able to carry this on long enough to give the sergeant a comparable send-off.

Final Opinion: Despite the heartbreaking ending and what I said about that, this did turn out to be a book I had a hard time putting down. I would recommend it as a result but would also caution you to brace yourself.

My Grade: A