Death of a Dreamer

I liked this book by M. C. Beaton, and found it satisfactory. Part of it was timing; I was in the mood for harmless entertainment, and while I hadn't read this book before, I knew what I was going to get.

Death of a Dreamer is the latest in a series of murder mysteries set in a remote village in the Scottish Highlands, and featuring the local policeman, a lanky redhead named Hamish Macbeth. This is a B series, not to be compared with Ellis Peters or Dick Francis or Anne Perry, my A-list favorites. No, this is more like Hostess Snowballs or Cupcakes or Twinkies--they're good enough if you like them, dreadful if you don't, but in no way comparable to a good homemade brownie or toasted almond cake.

But I confess a certain guilty pleasure in Hostess Snowballs, and I like this particular B series. I like Hamish and Priscilla, and the other characters are reasonably distinctive if annoying. The setting is interesting enough, the plots are reasonably cohesive, and they're not so long that the imperfections get to me. It was good enough, and I still liked it when it was all over.

And I won't regret the calories later.