Reviewed by Lynette Fowlston for Readers' Favorite

Once again M.C. Beaton’s Hamish Macbeth is swept up into a murder investigation in “Death of a Chimney Sweep”. When Captain Henry Davenport is found murdered and stuffed into his chimney which had just been cleaned that same day, all eyes were on the chimney sweep Pete Ray. That is until Pete is found down the road, dead, with money and jewels on him. Cut and dried case? Well for everyone but Hamish. This was just too convenient and Hamish does not believe Pete was capable of murder. When Hamish starts digging into the life of Davenport, he finds a man who runs one of the biggest money scams and has bilked his friends and acquaintances out of quite a sum of money. Letters are found in a secret hiding place. They could lead to the murderer. There are more murders and they are all connected. They lead back to one group. But just who in this group is the actual killer.

As with all of M.C.Beatons Hamish series, there is plenty of twist and turns. However Hamish eventually turns out to be the winner in each case. I like to think of him as a modern day Hercule Poirot or Colombo. This book has it all for the super sleuth reader, murder, suspense, surprises, humor and most of all a great cast of characters. If you like Agatha Christie or Angela Landsbury’s Murder She Wrote then I know it won’t take long for you to get addicted to MC Beaton.