Blog Tour: Ibiza Surprise – Dorothy Dunnett

When Sarah Cassells, a young British woman who has just completed her training as a chef, hears of her father’s violent death on Ibiza, she refuses to believe it is suicide.

She goes to Ibiza to investigate and becomes involved with an art dealer; with two beautiful jetsetters; with her brother’s strange predicament; with a remarkable American woman who is not all what she seems – and with Johnson Johnson, the mysterious portrait painter who shows up on his yacht, Dolly.

As Ibiza prepares to celebrate Holy Week with the traditional processions, events become more and more macabre…

Dorothy Dunnett 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. She died in 2001.

My thoughts: we’re back with portrait painter and secret agent Johnson Johnson on his yacht, Dolly, and this time he’s in Ibiza. Sarah Cassells has flown into the island after the supposed suicide of her father, Lord Farley of Pinner, but she’s pretty sure he was murdered.

Besides, she’s a woman in search of a husband with a decent sized bank account and she cooks, rides, water skis and all sorts of other things. Why wouldn’t she find one in this town? Staying with a friend’s family, she’s determined to find out what happened to her father. Getting embroiled in a scheme involving art, fake rubies, Holy Week and Russians, probably wasn’t part of her plan, but she’s pretty game if it will get her answers.

There’s actually less of Dolly and Johnson in this one, probably because they’re just in the port, no yacht race this time, and Sarah is right in the middle of things, including a very crazy party. Everyone drives back and forth across the island and Johnson is just in the background, working it all out in his bifocals.

But he’s there for the vital bits and explaining it all to Sarah and Co, she doesn’t even need to bother finding a husband just yet either, plenty of time for that and most of the candidates turn out to be unsuitable anyway. Jolly good fun.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.