M.C. Beaton: Death of a Scriptwriter

M.C. Beaton: Death of a Scriptwriter (UK 2022)

From the Publisher:
TRUTH IS STRANGER THAN FICTION...
Author Patricia Martyn-Broyd, now in her seventies, has retired to the Highlands. She hasn't written a word in years and her books are out of print. But now a television company is about to film her last detective story featuring the aristocratic Scottish detective Lady Harriet Vere. Even though the snobbish Miss Martyn-Broyd doesn't care to mix with the locals, she can't help but share her excitement with local policeman Hamish Macbeth.

Imagine her horror when she discovers that the screenwriter is known for his violent and scurrilous scripts and that Lady Harriet Vere is to be portrayed as a pot-smoking hippy by the scene-stealing Penelope Gates. But a contract is a contract, as Miss Martyn-Broyd quickly learns. And when she is accused of murdering both the scriptwriter and the leading lady, she turns to her one friend in Lochdubh, Harnish Macbeth, to help her.

Praise for M.C. Beaton:
'The books are a delight: clever, intricate, sardonic and amazingly true to the real Highlands' Kerry Greenwood
'It's always a special treat to return to Lochdubh' New York Times

M.C. Beaton: Death of a Scriptwriter. A Hamish Macbeth Murder Mystery. Constable, ISBN: 9781472124500 (May, 2022), 274 p., £9.99.

M.C. Beaton: Death of a Scriptwriter (UK 2018)

M.C. Beaton: Death of a Scriptwriter. A Hamish Macbeth Murder Mystery. Constable, ISBN: 9781472124500 (May, 2018), 274 p., £8.99.

M.C. Beaton: Death of a Scriptwriter (UK 2013)

From the Publisher:
Patricia Martyn-Broyd, now in her seventies, has retired to the Highlands. She hasn't written a word in years and her books are out of print. But now a television company is about to film her last detective story, featuring the aristocratic Scottish detective Lady Harriet Vare. Even better, a London publisher is bringing the book into print. Even though the snobbish Miss Martyn-Broyd doesn't care to mix with the locals she can't help but share her excitement with local policeman Hamish Macbeth.

Imagine her horror when Miss Martyn-Broyd discovers that Lady Harriet Vare is portrayed as a pot-smoking hippy, that the screenwriter is known for his violent and scurrilous scripts and that Lady Harriet is going to be played by the scene-stealing trollop Penelope Gates. But a contract is a contract, Ms Martyn-Broyd quickly learns and when she is accused of murdering the scriptwriter and the leading lady, she turns to her one friend in Lochdubh, Hamish Macbeth, to help her.

'An enchanting series... M.C. Beaton has a foolproof plot for the village mystery.' -- New York Times Book Review
'The detective novels of M.C. Beaton, a master of outrageous black comedy, have reached cult status.' -- Anne Robinson, The Times

M.C. Beaton: Death of a Scriptwriter. A Hamish Macbeth Murder Mystery. C & R Crime / Little, Brown, ISBN: 9781472105332 (September, 2013), 274 p., £7.99.

M.C. Beaton: Death of a Scriptwriter (UK 2009)

From the Publisher:
Would a mystery writer turn to murder?
Author Patricia Martyn-Broyd, now in her seventies, has retired to the Highlands. She hasn't written a word in years and her books are out of print. But now a television company is about to film her last mystery, featuring the aristocratic Scottish detective Lady Harriet Vare. The snobbish Miss Martyn-Broyd doesn't care to mix with the locals but she can't help but share her excitement with local policeman Hamish Macbeth.

Then, horrors! She finds that the screenwriter is known for his violent and scurrilous scripts and that Lady Harriet is to be portrayed as a pot-smoking hippy, played by the trollop Penelope Gates. When a nightmarish sequence of events results in murder, Miss Martyn-Broyd turns to her one friend in Lochdubh, Hamish Macbeth, to help her.

M.C. Beaton: Death of a Scriptwriter. A Hamish Macbeth Mystery. Robinson, ISBN: 1845299094 (July, 2009), 274 p., £6.99.

M.C. Beaton: Death of a Scriptwriter (USA 1999)

From the Publisher:
HOLLYWOOD IN THE HIGHLANDS...
With the lovely Priscilla Halburton-Smythe away in London, Lochdubh Constable Hamish Macbeth pines for company during the long Scottish winter. He gets his wish-and more-when a troupe of flashy, urbane filmmakers clamors into the nearby town of Drim. Before long bedlam erupts around their make-believe mystery... and culminates in the sudden appearance of one very real corpse. The initial suspect in the killing is one Patricia Martyn-Broyd, the aging mystery writer furious that her musty old cozies are getting a risqué face-lift in their TV reincarnation. Yet, going behind the scenes, Hamish soon finds a town full of locals bitten by the movie bug and a cast of quarreling show business types, all harboring their own secrets, lies, and hidden agendas. And as the culprit strikes again, Hamish must quickly find the right killer-or script the wrong finale to a show gone murderously awry.

"SUPERB ENTERTAINMENT, AS RICH AND WARMING AS FINE MALT WHISKEY, AND EVERY BIT AS ADDICTIVE." -- Houston Chronicle

M.C. BEATON is the author of the Hamish Macbeth mystery series, as well as the acclaimed Agatha Raisin series. She lives in a Cotswolds cottage with her husband.

A Featured Alternate of The Mystery Guild

SPECIAL FOR THIS EDITION!
An Excerpt from M.C. Beaton's Newest Novel, Death of an Addict

M.C. Beaton: Death of a Scriptwriter. A Hamish Macbeth Mystery. Mysterious Press / Warner Books, ISBN: 0446606987 (June, 1999), 198 p., $6.50.

M.C. Beaton: Death of a Scriptwriter (USA 1998)

From the Publisher:
With the wind howling across the black water of the lochs, the northernmost county of Scotland is a wonderful place for a mystery. And M.C. Beaton makes it the setting for a series so good that the Houston Chronicle calls it, "superb entertainment, as rich and warming as fine malt whiskey, and every bit as addictive." Here Beaton's irascible detective Hamish Macbeth grouses about the village of Lochdubh with a sixth sense for trouble and an eye for clues.

Death of a Scriptwriter
Patricia Martyn-Broyd was not an easy woman to like. The hawk-nosed spinster had retired to Scotland, unable to write another book since her 1965 mystery featuring the aristocratic Scottish detective Lady Harriet Vere. Local constable Hamish Macbeth, with the telepathic ability of the Highlander, thought Patricia must be lonely beneath her rigid pride. A bit lonely himself since the breakup of his engagement, he extended his friendship. But that was before fame and the movie people arrived...

A British TV company had decided to feature Lady Harriet in a new series. They didn't reveal to Patricia that a buxom soft-porn film star would star as Lady Harriet, that nude scenes had been added, or that the starchy aristocrat now presided over a 1960s hippie commune. Hamish, however, had a bad feeling about the whole venture, especially when the production crew set up in the nearby town of Drim. The constable knew there would be trouble between the middle-aged, dour townsfolk and the flashy, urbane filmmakers. And there was-murder.

When one of the scriptwriters for the series is found dead, the tension escalates on the set and in the streets of Drim. And as Hamish pokes into the town's secrets and the TV people's hidden agendas, he finds a large cast of people who wanted to cut out the writer for good-from the boozehound husband jealous of his actress wife's flagrant flirting to the tough, ambitious producer who was threatened with dismissal. Going behind the scenes, the detective knows he must resolve this deadly episode soon, for an impromptu killer is striking again, and again...

M.C. Beaton: Death of a Scriptwriter. A Hamish Macbeth Mystery. Mysterious Press / Warner Books, ISBN: 0892966440 (June, 1998), 214 p., $22.00.