Twice Bitten

Three Oaks #9

by Gerald Hammond

John Cunningham, veteran gun-dog trainer, stumbles into a dog-switching scheme that ends up in blackmail and, eventually, murder. Mim, one of the litter of pups born at Three Oaks Kennels, is a throwback to Clunie, a champion with a strong and difficult temperament. John's kennel-maid Daffy tries to train the highly strung pup for gunwork, but when the task proves impossible, John agrees to sell Mim to local farmer and businessman Quentin Cove. So imagine John's surprise when a year later the supposedly gun-shy Mim begins winning at field trials. Perhaps, as Daffy believes, John wrote Mim off too soon? Or is there a more sinister reason for the bitch's sudden success? And what is it that Cove's farm manager, Dougal Webb, has learned about Three Oaks Kennels--information so damning he believes he can try a spot of blackmail? That is until he suddenly disappears...

Genres: Mystery

230 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1998

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

[Charles van Buren]

As I have.noted previously, this series by Gerald Hammond is akin to Dick Frances with dogs instead of horses, field trials instead of races, and with recurring characters. Unfortunately, in this ninth volume, TWICE BITTEN, Mr. Hammond also made it clear that he was not a Christian. This is important to those of us who, if not insistent upon all of our literature being pro Christian, at least wish to avoid anti Christian propaganda in our fiction.

Here is one of the relevant passages from this book: "...she was aware of a growing view that, if the evidence of the Dead Sea Scrolls was to be accepted, the traditional view of Christ was the imagining of Saul of Tarsus after he had suffered a stroke on the road to Damascus and that Jesus, rather than the son of the deity, had more probably been a political agitator." As much as I have enjoyed Mr. Hammond's mysteries, I am not going to recommend such nonsense.

[Bonnye Reed]

Endeavour Media

[Viva · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won't explain the characters or the setting as this series should be read from the start. Each of the books is pretty short and can be read in 1-2 days for most people. Spoilers ahead.

This book has kind of a mishmash of plots, all intertwined with each other. It's actually not badly written and a departure from Hammond's usual more straightforward plot lines.

In one of the plots, Daffy picked Mim, a pup that's a throwback to Clunie, a champion but with an extreme and rather oddball character. She'll either be very good or impossible to train. For some reason, John was going to destroy her but Daffy saved and picked her to be her very own dog, and train her herself. Another characteristic was that she had a lot of small spots on her coat, making her look grey.

The training was going well enough but one day Daffy dropped a big pot on her leg scaring her badly. Then she was accidentally shot over at close range. Together these two things made her permanently gun shy and she would be no further use as a gundog. I think she was going to be destroyed but a local dog food manufacturer, Quentin Cove said he'd take her and train her himself.

Fast forward ahead, Cove was seen with Mim and amazingly, she grew into a very good gundog (I think she won some prizes) but Cove refused to let Daffy see or get close to her, his reasoning being that Daffy could remind her of her gun shy days. Weirdly enough, this compulsion became so strong that Cove took to spiking her drink to get her caught in a DUI and even trying to run her down (we find that he's the culprit later on). Cove even barred John from shooting on his property.

The next plot had to do with Dougal Webb, Hannah's boyfriend. He seemed to be a shady character and when he saw John's expensive Dickson shotgun he tried to buy it from him at a ludicrously small price and when John declined, Webb attempted to blackmail him. As John had done nothing illegal, he had no idea what Webb was talking about.

Fast forward again a little bit and Webb disappears. Then when John was out shooting with a small party they find a dead and burned body. Webb had been living above his means, wearing a Rolex and driving a nice Lotus. Apparently he had a habit of blackmailing people, so there were plenty of suspects, including John.

Confusing the issue was that John's uncle (Macevoy) had just been released from prison after embezzling money (and hidden it). So Hammond is dangling the red herring that the dead body is either the uncle who Webb killed for the hidden money and is laying low, or is actually Webb.

The mystery is solved when Jimmy (who John's mom had helped earlier) returned from an oil rig job. He told John that he had video evidence that Webb had been killed because he had been blackmailing two up and coming politicians.

The Mim mystery was solved when Cove confessed that he bought Mim for her registration papers. He had a very similar looking dog who was a good gundog but had no registered bloodline so he bought Mim for her papers (and killed her).

Like all his Three Oaks books, this had a complicated plot with a lot of things happening and for once, everything was kept straight and not all mixed up. But as usual Hammond solves the mysteries in a deus ex machina moment.

[Ellie Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent tale of rural skulduggery in the dog breeding world, with the Cunninghams wonderful kennel maids coming into their own in this story.

[Louise Mills · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beth and John save the day...again!

I have so enjoyed this series of Three Oaks. Highly recommend for any who dunnit and dog lovers. Looking forward to more.

[Kathryn Rasch · Rating 4 out of 5]

There was no audio edition of this book so I had to use a print copy. My audio book came from BARD. The narrator was very pedestrian.

[Katharine Ott · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Twice Bitten" - written by Gerald Hammond and published in 1999 by Minotaur Books. Heavy on hunting dogs, but not very entertaining.

[Kim · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one is hard to read. It involves a dog being euthanized, although that takes place off stage, as it were. Otherwise another fun read by Hammond.

[Evonne Hutton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Murder most vile! But is it?
This well written mystery will engage you right to the end

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

More Scotland, dogs, and whiskey. Still pretty good.