The Andrean Project by Ian C. Simpson

Sheriff Hector Drummond #2

by Ian Simpson

St Andrews, May 1930: Bobby Jones is in town for the British Amateur Championship, the first of that year's Majors. Sheriff Hector Drummond has entered the championship but when he finds a body on the course he becomes personally involved in a murder hunt. As Jones struggles to keep his Grand Slam hopes alive, Hector encounters a second body, a hostile police inspector, a corrupt politician and a wealthy American megalomaniac with ambitions to take over the St Andrews golf courses.

Paperback

About the author

After doing criminal defence work at the Scottish bar, I spent eighteen years on the bench, latterly sitting part-time as a temporary High Court judge. When I retired due to ill-health I turned from crime fact to crime fiction. In 2008 I was shortlisted for the Debut Dagger by the Crime Writers' Association. Murder on Page One is my first book to be published. Murder on the Second Tee is my second. Murder in Court Three came out at Easter 2015. Murder in the Fourth Round is the latest in the series.
Sons of the Fathers and The Andrean Project are different from the others as they are 'faction'. I have always admired the great Bobby Jones, who has a special affinity to St Andrews, my home town. In these books I have weaved murder mysteries into true accounts of championships won by Jones at St Andrews. Aimed mainly at golfers, I have been pleased to get positive reactions from non-golfers.

Reviews

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

A powerful follow-up to the first novel set in St Andrews. Ian Simpson is a master of characterisation at a time when the world was in transition; an eye for detail and an ear for dialogue but placed in 1930. It is also a timely tale of corruption in public office and poor bank legislation that allowed some to profit at the cost of whole communities.
The murder mystery sits alongside a terrible plot to overthrow the establishment and traditions of St Andrews in the guise of progress and modernisation. Promising jobs and future prosperity against common rights and universal freedoms.
Weaved into the story are some of the issues of the day that are beautifullly introduced to keep the readers' interest beyond the main character which is the golf tournament on the old course at St Andrews. This is often the main focus of the narrative but not at the expense on any reader who loathes sport and all this golf. Indeed it is interesting in its angle on amateur participation and the proper corintian spirit when in modern days we hear of performance enhancing drugs and prise money being the principal reasons to want to win.
I loved the sub-plots around valets and servents, bad medical prognosis for the poor, sexual relationships outside of marriage and unspeakable acts, blackmail and integrity in others.
It is a well rounded story full of interest and a complex plot or two that leaves the reader guessing right to the end. I learned more about golf in a non-threatening, in yer face way. I loved the locations and the setting, made alive by the weather and dialect. I thought the use of the scotish play was clever and well executed in every sense.
Above all I could believe in the struggles between Sheriff Hector and his wife Lavender. There was affection and loyalty but perhaps more duty than love.
The best relationship cuts across the sicial divide and is fashion by Tommy the caddie and Hector who when is 'son' is arrested for murder has to step aside from his legal duties and trust a system he has pledge his career and life sustaining. However, this gives him both the time and purpose to engage in private sleuthing, personal and proffessional feelings aside he must find peace of mind in that the ends justify the means.
A great book worthy of anyone's interest as it will bring pleasure and joy in equal measure. It is a wonderful tribute to the author's own career and talent as a writer but above all else it is a wonderful tribute to Bobby Jones, amateur golfer and gentleman.
One of the few golfing events I truely enjoy is the Masters and in passing this book will henceforth increase my pleasure of that whole occassion.
I am grareful to the author for allowing me a copy of this excellent book, he too is a gentleman and I hope friend. I do not feel compelled or obliged to give a glowing review but write from my reading experience and love of books. The Andrean Project is a book that all will enjoy and many will love for years to come; it has been a real pleasure to read and reflect on that experience.

[Gordon · Rating 3 out of 5]

The late Ian Simpson was a friend of a friend and this was passed on to me for interest.

It was OK. I hadn't read the other Hector Drummond mystery but it didn't matter at all. The story centres on the 1930 Amateur Golf Championship at St Andrew's, the first leg won by Bob Jones on the way to his famous grand slam of that year. Local Sheriff (local judge) Drummond finds a body, then there's another, then his own son is arrested by the stereotypically ignorant police inspector for the crimes. The rest of the book involves Drummond working out who really dunnit, and why.

Simpson himself was a fine golfer in his day and a criminal defence lawyer, so he's writing well within his comfort zone. This isn't challenging reading, and it's short as well – I reckon you could read the entire 200 pages on the Edinburgh to London train. Personally, I found the characters a bit wooden, and I found Drummond's sudden deduction of the crime slightly incomprehensible. But it's gentle, escapist reading, well-researched, and if you like St Andrew's, or golfing history, or crime novels then this could be for you.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won this book on Good Reads and enjoyed it because I didn't work out the murderer straight away. Others would enjoy the golf, the historical background ot the scottishness of the novel.