A burnt out land rover is found with a body in the driver's seat, and over two dozen dead woodpigeons nearby...Inspector Munro, needing expert help with the forensic evidence, swallows his natural distrust of Keith Calder and asks him to assist the Police. But Calder's enthusiasm to help rapidly turns to dismay when he realises his findings point to the involvement of his inventor-storekeeper friend, Jake Paterson.Jake had been sleeping with the victim's wife and, with Edinburgh's Chief Inspector Russell holding a long-standing grudge against him, there's a swift arrest and murder charge.But something doesn't add up for Calder.Can he discover the truth to save his friend and bring the true murderer to justice?'With his expert knowledge of guns and his love of the Scottish countryside, Gerald created marvellous backgrounds against which he set puzzling, credible, and thoroughly entertaining whodunits. His books were not long, tedious, over-padded, thrillers. Instead they are almost of another age, ingenious plots, characters with whom you want to spend time, and a world to which you eagerly anticipate returning.' - Paul Bishop, author of Deep WaterBorn in 1926, Gerald Hammond lived in Scotland, where he retired from his profession as an architect in 1982 to pursue his love of shooting and fishing and to write full time. After his first novel, Fred in Situ , was published in 1965, Gerald became a prolific author with over 70 published novels. Most of his novels were published under his own name, but he also wrote under the pseudonyms Arthur Douglas and Dalby Holden.