SAUCE FOR THE PIGEON

Another offbeat adventure for Hammond's sharp-witted gunsmith/sleuth Keith Calder (Cousin Once Removed, etc.), this time focusing on Calder's expertise in pigeon shooting. It's on pigeon-shooting land that retired accountant Neill Muir's charred body is found one morning in his burnt-out Land Rover. And circumstances point to the involvement of Calder's inventor-storekeeper friend Jake Paterson: Jake has been sleeping with Muir's blonde-bombshell wife. Furthermore, Edinburgh's Chief Inspector Russell holds a long-standing grudge against Jake; so, with Russell putting on pressure, there's a swift arrest and murder charge. But Calder, with help from Jake's lovable lawyer Ralph Enterkin, comes up with a clever alternate scenario--getting his friend off the hook and bringing the true murderer to justice. The difference between a homer and a cushie, a lopher and a flapper, may not be what you've yearned to know; but Hammond's bouncy style keeps the pigeon lore from becoming utterly boring, while the sleuthing is on the usual middling level.