Marion Chesney was born on 1936 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK, and started her first job as a bookseller in charge of the fiction department in John Smith & Sons Ltd. While bookselling, by chance, she got an offer from the Scottish Daily Mail to review variety shows and quickly rose to be their theatre critic. She left Smith’s to join Scottish Field magazine as a secretary in the advertising department, without any shorthand or typing, but quickly got the job of fashion editor instead. She then moved to the Scottish Daily Express where she reported mostly on crime. This was followed by a move to Fleet Street to the Daily Express where she became chief woman reporter. After marrying Harry Scott Gibbons and having a son, Charles, Marion went to the United States where Harry had been offered the job of editor of the Oyster Bay Guardian. When that didn’t work out, they went to Virginia and Marion worked as a waitress in a greasy spoon on the Jefferson Davies in Alexandria while Harry washed the dishes. Both then got jobs on Rupert Murdoch’s new tabloid, The Star, and moved to New York.

Anxious to spend more time at home with her small son, Marion, urged by her husband, started to write historical romances in 1977. After she had written over 100 of them under her maiden name, Marion Chesney, and under the pseudonyms: Ann Fairfax, Jennie Tremaine, Helen Crampton, Charlotte Ward, and Sarah Chester, she getting fed up with 1714 to 1910, she began to write detectives stories in 1985 under the pseudonym of M. C. Beaton. On a trip from the States to Sutherland on holiday, a course at a fishing school inspired the first Constable Hamish Macbeth story. They returned to Britain and bought a croft house and croft in Sutherland where Harry reared a flock of black sheep. But Charles was at school, in London so when he finished and both tired of the long commute to the north of Scotland, they moved to the Cotswolds where Agatha Raisin was created.

Characters

Major Characters

Recap

Constable Hamish Macbeth notices something deeply unsettling in the neighbouring village of Stoyre. The once lively community has become eerily silent. The pub is deserted, the church is overflowing, and the villagers seem frightened to speak to anyone, especially Hamish. Something has changed, and nobody will admit what it is.

As Hamish begins investigating, the mystery expands far beyond Stoyre. A dubious insurance claim raises suspicion, a woman reports her abusive husband missing, unexplained deaths at a nursing home demand attention, and a child disappears. At first these cases appear unrelated, but together they paint a disturbing picture of fear, manipulation, and greed lurking beneath the peaceful Highland landscape. With help from Elspeth Grant, Hamish must untangle several seemingly independent mysteries while navigating village gossip, departmental politics, and the growing sense that someone is prepared to kill to keep their secrets hidden.

Notes As I Read

Death of a Village

Price: Rs 33

Seller: Books by weight

Condition: Pristine

Notes As I Read

(Page 4)

Reading about Stoyre reminder me of Hope and Despair, the neighbouring twin towns of Colorado in Jack Reacher book number 12 Nothing to Lose. When Jake arrived in the town of Despair, he also felt the same vibe that Despair that Hamish felt about Stoyre: something uncertain, something unsettling, people unwilling to talk, the religious angle, all of it. I may think of revisiting the Lee child novel in near future.

(Page 20)

Post Review Thoughts

I’ll look for more Himesh Macbeth books, for sure.

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