From Publishers Weekly
In this latest Keith Calder mystery (after A Brace of Skeet ), Hammond's hero, who owns a sport shop in the lowlands of Scotland, is interrupted during his slow season by the arrival of Robert Hall, a gunsmith in search of a job. Hall quit his previous position after overhearing his employer contracting to produce a rifle that can only be an assassination weapon. Who the victim will be and how to prevent the crime become the driving questions behind this original and immensely entertaining novel. Hammond, a kind of Dick Francis of the rod and gun set, eschews the obvious and keeps readers guessing. His protagonist is not a conventional PI but more in the mode of Sherlock Holmes or Nero Wolfe, a consulting detective who spends much of the time cerebrally sorting through clues. He is aided in his work by his daughter and her fiance, a local police sergeant. Also figuring prominently is Paul Cardinal, a retired L.A. cop from the antiterrorist squad who may not be what he seems. In the process of preventing the crime Calder drinks a fair amount of malt whiskey and manages to solve a centuries' old mystery involving Peter the Great, Scottish highwaymen and some rare, missing pistols and swords. It's all great fun, suffused with the rhythms of life in rural Scotland. Readers will feel that they can taste the wee drams downed by Calder and his compatriots as they pour forth more than clues.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
The author's Scottish hero, gunsmith Keith Calder (Home to Roost, etc.), finally hits a bull's-eye, in tandem with Detective Sergeant Ian Fellowes, his daughter Deborah's suitor. When Robert Hall applies for a job with Calder, he reluctantly tells of having left his last employer because the man appeared to be secretly altering a rifle specifically for assassination purposes, at the behest of a woman later identified as con-artist\fence Dora Braddle. Calder reports the story to the police, and Fellowes is assigned to discreetly pursue Braddle. He quickly becomes the pursued, however, in a chase that involves an American hit man; the rescue of innocent bystander Sheila Blayne; a desperate voyage in a stolen sailboat, with villains in wait at every port; a final confrontation on the desolate moors; and some surprising last developments. Gunlore, kept below brain-glazing levels, is varied with livelier sailing-lore--but this time out, Hammond has come up with a zingy plot, nonstop action, and lots of interesting character interplay to produce a winner. --
Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
