Changes

A new detective series is always a treat and this one has a lot going for it. I liked Clare Mackay: she's self -aware and certainly not infallible. There's a glass of wine she'll regret for a while. But what comes across strongly is a determination to get the job done and the guilty behind bars. There's a decent team behind her and whilst only the DS - Chris West - came across strongly in this book you sense that there's scope for the future.

The location is good. There isn't an over -reliance on the golfing and university connections in the town, but if you've visited either the Old Course or the university you'll recognise a lot of the places mentioned. Clares struggling with the place names too: she'd never even heard of the Swilcan Bridge, a mecca for a lot of golfers.

It's the plot you really want to know about though, isn't it? It's good, particularly for a first-in-series book where when - of necessity - a good bit of background has to be covered. Some delicate issues are covered (no - I'm not going to tell you!) and Marion Todd deals with them sensitively without needing to go into too much detail. I had worked out who the killer was '''and'' why - only to find that I was completely wrong despite all the clues being there.