Hook or Crook

Keith Calder #20

by Gerald Hammond

Professional fisherman Wallace James and his pupil Eric Bell are fishing for salmon when they discover the body of a man in the river, a fishhook embedded in his cheek. At first it looks like the man accidentally slipped and fell while fishing. But where’s his fishing rod and the rest of his equipment? The dead man is Bernard Hollister. He hadn’t been in town long and already he’d come to blows with Imad Vahhaji, a quiet, soft-spoken Arab. When questioned about his altercation with Hollister, Vahhaji says nothing. Hollister had worked for many years in the Middle East. Do the reasons for his untimely death lie in his exotic past? Born 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.

Genres: Mystery

163 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Gerald 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.

Reviews

[Viva · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won't explain the setting or characters as this series should be read from the start to give the reader a full understanding of everybody.

Spoilers ahead. This time we're back to Wallace as the POV character. For a change, it's about fishing, which is very welcome to me as it's a chance to learn something about fishing in Scottish streams.

Wallace is acting as a tutor/mentor to a rich client (Eric) who owns a chain of clothing(?) stores and money is no object. Not only does Wallace sells him the equipment, this is a fully paid trip so Wallace can give him hands on advice.

While fishing on the river they come across a dead man (Benard Hollister) with a fishing hook on his cheek. At first the local police think it's an accident, that BN hooked his own cheek on a cast, slipped and fell on the slippery rocks and hit his head on a rock. But based on the hook, the lure, and what's in his fly case, Wallace tells the police he doesn't think it's an accident because the clues don't add up.

Later on when fishing further up river, they come across BN's rod as well as his folding knife. Wallace and Eric are now drawn into the murder investigation. They ask the locals of BN's movements during the time which he died and the movements of certain suspects. The case is blown wide open when BN's daughter arrives to identify the body a few days later.

Real spoilers head, don't read ahead if you don't want to know. She mentions that he (a widower) retired after a career of being a British bank manager in the Middle East. His wife (her mom) was injured and almost killed by a terrorist bomb over there. When they got back to London, she was run over and killed while crossing the street. She might have been able to avoid the car, had she not had a lingering injury from the terrorist bomb blast. What's more, the driver of the car, an Arab diplomat was able to escape the consequences through diplomatic immunity.

As it happens, the same Arab diplomat was now staying nearby enjoying a fishing holiday. They put 2+2 together and surmised that BN was here to seek revenge and the diplomat's bodyguards had discovered his plan and killed him. They also discovered witness(es) who saw the bodyguards driving BN's vehicles around the time of his death. The book wraps up on how the diplomat faced justice.

Overall, not a bad whodunit. I liked the fishing lore and info on salmon and trout. Regarding the actual whodunit, as usual I feel that Hammond made the mystery more complicated that it needed to be by adding red herrings or dead ends. A good mystery doesn't really need that. I rather like a more straightforward plot with good writing.

[Joanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good story but...

This is a well-written whodunnit, which managed to hold my interest despite all the details about fly fishing, but the vagueness about the Middle East and reluctance to name a country bothered me. As did the uncertainty whether one character is Arabic or Iranian.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wallace James and Eric Bell are fishing in the River Spey when they discover a body in the river. Was it an accident or murder. DCI Ferguson leads the enquiry with a lot questions asked by PC Tony McIver and Bell.
Too much information about fishing to keep my keep my interest, and Keith Calder does not make an appearance.