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Keith Calder #3
The Revenge Game
Drama comes to the quiet town of Newton Lauder when the canal overflows, flooding streets, houses and the surrounding countryside. The drama is intensified when there is found, in the emptied canal, a skeleton, soon identified as that of a canal employee, absent for over a year and missed, but not lamented, by his colleagues.
Keith Calder — gunsmith, hunter and more-or-less reformed Casanova — is only interested in the flood as it affects the movement of the local wildfowl, until he is interviewed by the police in connection with certain anomalies in the dead man’s firearms certificate. During the interview, Keith gets word that his shop is on fire; and there starts a horrific chain of events which involves him deeply and personally.
As assault and attempted murder are added to homicide and arson, Keith’s inbred instinct as a hunter comes to the fore and what follows is a tremendously exciting and tautly-plotted whodunnit.
Keith Calder — gunsmith, hunter and more-or-less reformed Casanova — is only interested in the flood as it affects the movement of the local wildfowl, until he is interviewed by the police in connection with certain anomalies in the dead man’s firearms certificate. During the interview, Keith gets word that his shop is on fire; and there starts a horrific chain of events which involves him deeply and personally.
As assault and attempted murder are added to homicide and arson, Keith’s inbred instinct as a hunter comes to the fore and what follows is a tremendously exciting and tautly-plotted whodunnit.
- GenresMystery
213 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1981
41 people are currently reading
10 people want to read
About the author
Gerald Hammond
100 books19 followersGerald Hammond, (Gerald Arthur Douglas Hammond) son of Frederick Arthur Lucas (a physician) and Maria Birnie (a nursing sister) Hammond; married Gilda Isobel Watt (a nurse), August 20, 1952; children: Peter, David, Steven. Education: Aberdeen School of Architecture, Dip. Arch., 1952. He served in the British Army, 1944-45. Although born in Bournemouth, Hampshire, England, he worked in and retired to the country he most loved, Scotland.
He also writes under the names of Arthur Douglas and Dalby Holden. He was an architect for thirty years before retiring to write novels full-time in 1982. He has written over 50 novels since the late 1960s.
His novels center around guns, shooting, hunting, fishing, and dog training.
He also writes under the names of Arthur Douglas and Dalby Holden. He was an architect for thirty years before retiring to write novels full-time in 1982. He has written over 50 novels since the late 1960s.
His novels center around guns, shooting, hunting, fishing, and dog training.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 7, 2019
Another Gerald Hammond novel which is more action and adventure than mystery. Hammond's emphasis is on characters and locale but there is a mystery. It just takes backseat to exploring the characters and their interaction with each other. Attacking and nearly killing Keith Calder's wife proves to be a grave mistake. But which one of a rather nasty crew committed the actual deed? You can run from an angry Calder but....
December 30, 2025
Re-reading this mystery series for the 3rd time. The series revolves around Keith Calder, a Scots gunsmith and game guide and his coterie of friends. It's a fairly slow paced series but I like it for its setting, gun, dog and game talk.
After not having read it for many years I had a hard time getting back into the series. It's only into the 3rd book that I started liking/enjoying it again, probably because all the parts are in place (the characters), whereas the first 2 books were partly spent putting the pieces into place and setting up the series.
Spoilers ahead. Wallace runs a barge on a canal and when his barge hits a lock gate, the gate fails, water floods down the canal and breaches a retaining wall, flooding the town. A year-dead dead man (skeleton) is found on the canal bed. Calder is roped in when it's found that he sold the gun the dead man (Fraser) was found with.
I'll skip straight to the summary as the plot is rather pedestrian but the parts surrounding it is what makes the book interesting. The plot is that a group of people have been swindling the Canal Authority for years, working for it but billing it for work not done and official purchases made for it but used for the private use of those same individuals. As a result of many years of fraud, the canal was poorly maintained and that was why the gate failed.
Fraser was the brains of the group, keeping the fraud as low key and as believable as possible, in order to stay undetected. He was killed when part of the group pulled off a fraud which he believed would jeopardize the whole operation and he drunkenly went to confront them.
So that's the plot. What I liked about the book was the narrative of the main character grouping, the interactions between them, the gun talk (mostly specialist antique guns, not modern firepower), game talk and small Scottish village life. It's almost like a drama book with a mystery thrown in. It is an acquired taste but there is for sure a niche audience as this series has 18(?) books.
Now on to book 4.
After not having read it for many years I had a hard time getting back into the series. It's only into the 3rd book that I started liking/enjoying it again, probably because all the parts are in place (the characters), whereas the first 2 books were partly spent putting the pieces into place and setting up the series.
Spoilers ahead. Wallace runs a barge on a canal and when his barge hits a lock gate, the gate fails, water floods down the canal and breaches a retaining wall, flooding the town. A year-dead dead man (skeleton) is found on the canal bed. Calder is roped in when it's found that he sold the gun the dead man (Fraser) was found with.
I'll skip straight to the summary as the plot is rather pedestrian but the parts surrounding it is what makes the book interesting. The plot is that a group of people have been swindling the Canal Authority for years, working for it but billing it for work not done and official purchases made for it but used for the private use of those same individuals. As a result of many years of fraud, the canal was poorly maintained and that was why the gate failed.
Fraser was the brains of the group, keeping the fraud as low key and as believable as possible, in order to stay undetected. He was killed when part of the group pulled off a fraud which he believed would jeopardize the whole operation and he drunkenly went to confront them.
So that's the plot. What I liked about the book was the narrative of the main character grouping, the interactions between them, the gun talk (mostly specialist antique guns, not modern firepower), game talk and small Scottish village life. It's almost like a drama book with a mystery thrown in. It is an acquired taste but there is for sure a niche audience as this series has 18(?) books.
Now on to book 4.
January 8, 2025
Brilliantly written
Such an exciting read, so many twists and turns. I really hope there is another one to follow, just can't get enough of the characters, especially set in Scotland. At times I felt as though I was walking in the woods with Keith Calder
Such an exciting read, so many twists and turns. I really hope there is another one to follow, just can't get enough of the characters, especially set in Scotland. At times I felt as though I was walking in the woods with Keith Calder
December 8, 2020
a nice continuation in the series. Looking forward to see where the series goes next.
October 26, 2025
This was an unenjoyable trashy thriller. It made me feel cold and wet. I hated the protagonist.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews