A RUNNING JUMP

When Polly James, sick of the attentions of her mother’s constant stream of admirers, does a bunk and hightails it to London, she’s not the only one making a departure, since her author is leaving behind the Highlands landscapes so familiar to his fans (Bloodlines, 1998, etc.). What can the metropolis offer this devotee of hunting and fishing, dogs and guns and birds? Hammond finds nature still red in tooth and claw, just dressed differently—in the baseball caps of the would-be rapists who surround Polly on her way to the bus station, for instance, or in the leather jacket sported by her savior, wrestler Darryl Davidson, a.k.a. the Masked Marauder. Offered a free kip in the previous tenant Diana’s room in Darryl’s house for the night, Polly finds the price too high when Diana returns to steal the money Polly’s swiped from her mum. Nothing daunted, Polly bikes over to Diana’s to recover her purse, only to find she’s inadvertently taken something she’ll be sorry she saw. Like