Her table manners were a crime, but she didn't deserve to die!

There's not a cloud in Hamish Macbeth's sky - just plenty of warm sunshine,although not quite enough of the lovely Priscilla Halburton-Smythe as he'd like.

But as eight hopeful members of the Checkmate Singles Club converge on Tommel Castle Hotel for a week of serious matchmaking, the clouds roll in. The four couples, carefully matched by dating director Maria Worth, immediately dislike one another. And the arrival of Maria's gross, greedy business partner, Peta, kills the last vestige of romance.

And as love goes out the window, murder comes in the door. Peta soon slurps up her last meal and Hamish is left with the baffling puzzle: who shared the fateful outing that left Peta dead with a large rosy red apple in her mouth?

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