Death of a Dentist

Title: Death of a Dentist
Author: M. C. Beaton
Published: 1998 by Warner Books. American edition. Ick. I bought it in the middle of the UK!
Genre: Murder mystery
Pages: 228


Two reasons I bought and (eventually) read this book: 1) I am terrified of dentists, and hoped that reading of a dead one would get me over my fear so I could go and get my chipped teeth checked, FINALLY, and 2) Hamish Macbeth is, thanks to the TV-series of the same name, possibly my favourite copper. Ever. Played by Robert Carlyle, even, who's one of my favourite actors. Ever.

So it turns out that the TV-series isn't that faithful to the books, but I'm not saying that for sure as this is only one book out of about two dozen. What I can say for sure is that they never made an episode of this one.

The whole Hamish Macbeth -series is set in the Scottish Highlands, in a small, small village called Lochdubh, and its surroundings. It's safe to say that most of the cast are a wee bit eccentric. Hamish himself is a smart cop, in truth too smart for wee Lochdubh. But he doesn't want to leave the life in a small village for a more glorious job in the big city. Death of a Dentist starts with a toothache, a robbed hotel safe and a dead dentist. The toothache is Hamish's, and when it gets bad enough, he decides to head to the dentist with a bad reputation, Gilchrist. The ache is more or less forgotten when, arriving at the man's surgery, Hamish finds Gilchrist murdered in his chair, all his teeth drilled.

Yeah, it didn't really help me with my dentist terror. But it was a fun book to read, similar in spirit to the TV-series. Or the TV-series is similar to the books in spirit, but since I was familiar with the TV-version first... I've got another one on the shelves, Death of a Dustman, but I think I'll save that for a rainy day. Especially since my Pile Of Books That I'm Reading Now is starting to be as tall as my Pile Of Books I Want To Read. Especially since I kinda have to do other things beside reading, like sleep and work and writing and drawing and such. And we just bought a PlayStation 3, so...


"Was there any point in plodding on, finding out a bit here and a bit there? Why not go back to the police station, light the fire and settle down in front of it with a detective story, preferably an American one of the more violent kind where the hero could act out Hamish's frustrations for him, slamming people up against walls and beating confessions out of them."