A reunion is organised for a group of ex-servicemen, who took place in a scientific study about educational methods in the 50's. The remainin men, now all in their seventies, travel to Scotland for the event, but it's marred by the apparent suicide of one of them on the way up, and the accidental death of another while driving from a hotel. A third member of the group is found rather unambigously murdered, and police suspicion falls on two of the men, who set about finding out what is really going on.

After Afterwards this was a bit of a relief, in that it was more or less a straight thriller without any pretensions of being meaningful or thought-provoking. But it was a fairly weak story really, which I didn't find terrifically thrilling.

One problem early on was that there were about ten of them that went up to Scotland, and they all had nicknames. So a given person might at any time be referred to either by his first name, surname, or nickname. Which meant thirty names you had to keep track of, and to start with you don't know which are the important ones.

The two heroes, Harry (turned out it wasn't important to remember his nickname or surname) and Barry ("Fission") Chipchase have an association which survived their national service career, because Barry swindled Harry out of some money, and has since been involved in a series of scams which have meant that he's spent time in prison, and so they have "issues" to sort out, but nothing really came of this: apart from a little bit of moaning, Harry doesn't seem that bothered, and for all his reputation as a shady character, Barry doesn't bring much to the table when it comes to solving the crimes that they are both being accused of.

Rather slow and disappointing really; probably wouldn't bother with another by this author.

Completed : 24-Jan-2012 (audiobook)