Published by Allison & Busby, 2002. ISBN: 978-0-7490-0605-6 (HB)
On a hill-walking holiday in the beautiful Scottish
Highlands, Fizz Fitzgerald and Tam Buchanan
are witness to a horrific car crash. There is little they can do for the driver,
except agree to accede to her dying wish to help her passenger, who she assures
them is being pursued by the police who are trying to kill him. And so, Fizz
and Tam find themselves on the run, in charge of a guy in his seventies with a
halo of white fluffy curls and the demeanour of a saint. The Beatific smile of their newly acquired
friend is quickly explained, McKenzie is pie-eyed.
Encountering the boys in blue on two occasions, it is
clear that they only want Scott McKenzie dead, and friendly chat is not on their agenda.
For Fizz and Tam, their only hope of information is McKenzie, but he is extremely
vague. Trying to establish how he came to be in Inverness, Buchanan asked, ‘What
is the last thing you remember? Back in Edinburgh, were you drinking?’ ‘Veryl likely
dear boy, said McKenzie with great dignity. No point in being sober if you don’t
have to be.
Avoiding the police and seeking innocuous breakfast accommodation
is not Buchanan’s bag, but he adapts surprisingly well to the situation,
whereas Fizz, seems suddenly aware of all she has worked for. Tying to keep
McKenzie sober is no mean feat, when turning ones back he is off to chat up the
landlady for the cooking brandy. They attempt to back track his activities and
encounter far more than they could ever have envisaged, For, as McKenzie
recalls places and people, he cannot recall whether they are friends or the
people chasing him, posing Fizz and Buchanan on the horns of dilemma.
McKenzie is a wonderful character of great charm, and
all the low-down cunning of the drunk I sensed some difference in this book to
the earlier books in the series and think that it is down to Fizz. Now that she
is on the verge of becoming a fully-fledged solicitor, is she changing? She
makes a change that unsettles Buchanan. Well, it unsettled me! No of course I am not going to say what, you
will have to read the book for yourself,
With tight plotting, and wonderful characterisation, this
is a truly satisfying read. Highly recommended. ----- Reviewer: Lizzie Hayes Earlier
books in the series are Payment Deferred, Foreign Body, Bad Vibes, Thin Ice,
Mr Big, Bitter End.
Joyce Holms was born and educated in Glasgow. The victim of a low
boredom threshold, she has held a variety of jobs, from teaching window
dressing and managing a hotel on the Isle of Arran to working for an Edinburgh
detective agency and running a B&B in the Highlands. Married with two grown
up children, she lives in Edinburgh and her interests include hill-walking and
garden design.
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