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Fizz & Buchanan #7
Hot Potato: A Fitz & Buchanan Mystery
Solicitor Tam Buchanan and his friend and colleague Fizz Fitzgerald arrange to get away from it all on a hill-walking holiday in the beautiful Scottish Highlands. Unfortunately, their idyllic break is ruined when they witness a horrific car crash. Fizz and Buchanan hear the dying wish of the crash victim, a plea to protect the second passenger in the car, an elderly, amnesiac, alcoholic gentleman with a price on his head. Matters are made worse when they see the police make a murderous attempt on their charge’s life. With lives and careers in the balance, Fizz and Buchanan want to stay as far away from the law as possible until they solve the case!
288 pages, Paperback
First published April 18, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 11, 2024
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.
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Reviewer: Lizzie Hayes
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.
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Reviewer: Lizzie Hayes
June 7, 2022
Another immensely enjoyable and laugh-out-loud funny book in this series by Joyce Holms. The two main characters are legal colleagues in Edinburgh and (perhaps unlikely) friends, always finding themselves in the middle of a mystery they have to solve, where there safety and even lives could be at stake.
This delightfully farcical series relies on the personalities of the two main characters, which are opposite yet complementary to each other. Fizz Fitzpatrick is a pocket rocket - a petite and guileless ringletted cherub-face who looks like a teenager but is in fact 29, has travelled the world, is incredibly resourceful, gutsy, quick-witted, perspicacious and, at times, rash. Tam Buchanan, older and already a lawyer, balances her personality with a more ponderous and circumspect nature; he's infuriated and alarmed by Fizz at times yet knows he has to trust her, and is fiercely loyal.
A weekend of walking in the Western Highlands is interrupted when the pair see a car crash and find themselves saddled with looking after a charmingly affable but amnesiac alcoholic who's being pursued by baddies. The bridge scene near the beginning is priceless, and it carries on in the same comedy of errors sort of way. Guaranteed to put a smile on the face of even the most dour sourpuss.
This delightfully farcical series relies on the personalities of the two main characters, which are opposite yet complementary to each other. Fizz Fitzpatrick is a pocket rocket - a petite and guileless ringletted cherub-face who looks like a teenager but is in fact 29, has travelled the world, is incredibly resourceful, gutsy, quick-witted, perspicacious and, at times, rash. Tam Buchanan, older and already a lawyer, balances her personality with a more ponderous and circumspect nature; he's infuriated and alarmed by Fizz at times yet knows he has to trust her, and is fiercely loyal.
A weekend of walking in the Western Highlands is interrupted when the pair see a car crash and find themselves saddled with looking after a charmingly affable but amnesiac alcoholic who's being pursued by baddies. The bridge scene near the beginning is priceless, and it carries on in the same comedy of errors sort of way. Guaranteed to put a smile on the face of even the most dour sourpuss.
August 22, 2011
I felt this book was a little slower moving than I had expected from the description. And the characters were a little flat. I was confused over the relationship of the two main people, Fizz & Buchanan, and I was left with many questions...why is she called Fizz? Obviously a nickname, but is it due to her personality? Or a childhood name that stuck? After jumping back & forth from location to location and character to character, it barreled forward at the end just to come to an abrupt start.
June 18, 2012
While this is not my favorite Fizz and Tam book I did enjoy it for the most part. One of the main characters in the story is an old drunk who was probably meant to be funny. He wasn't. He was the hot potato that kept flipping from hand to hand as he was rescued from several dire situations, but he was more than annoying to me and I never warmed to him.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews