Rita, a small, tough Scottish make-up artist is on Madeira trying to find out who killed Kim-Jim, an American make-up supremo. Also anchored off the island is Dolly, the yacht of Johnson Johnson with whom she teams up. Rita’s fighting spirits are aroused despite her danger. She is not one for quitting, even when she learns she is caught up in an international drug-smuggling ring. But she also discovers that dealing with the maddeningly enigmatic Johnson Johnson is, by no stretch of the imagination, plain sailing.
Dorothy Dunnett (1923-2001) gained an international reputation as a writer of historical fiction. She moved genres and turned to crime writing with the acclaimed Dolly books, also known as the Johnson Johnson series. She was a trustee of the National Library of Scotland, and a board member of the Edinburgh International Book Festival. In 1992 she was awarded an OBE for her services to literature. A leading light in the Scottish arts world and a renaissance woman, Dunnett was also a professional portrait painter and exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy on many occasions.
My thoughts: this was lots of fun, it’s a shame I hadn’t come across Dorothy Dunnett before (what a name for the crime genre!) as she’s a great writer. In this book we’re off to Madeira and then onto the Caribbean in the company of Rita Geddes, make up artist and now amateur sleuth.
She’s not entirely thrilled to be out of the UK, and certainly not in the company of artist (and spy) Johnson Johnson. But her friend Kim-Jim is dead, her other pal Ferdy is on hand and she wants justice, and to rehome the parrot she just inherited.
But there’s a whole conspiracy of drug smuggling, trans Atlantic proportions going on and a hurricane closing in. As Rita and her colleagues race to get ahead of the murderous smugglers on a boat called Dolly, will they be in danger too?
Tremendous fun and the first in a series of adventures featuring Johnson Johnson and Dolly, though sadly not Rita, who I loved.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 