The Unkindest Cut

August 20, 2012
Quaint details about the denizens of the Scottish hamlet of Birchgroveâhuman and animalâfill this appealing cozy from British veteran Hammond (With My Little Eye). Village vet Jane Highsmith and writer Roland Fox are looking forward to getting married, but Jane's impulsive decision to treat an injured puppy at her surgery on their wedding day results in a confrontation with a masked, knife-wielding thief, whom she accidentally tags with a pet-identifying microchip before he flees. When a gas station is later robbed in similar fashion, Det. Insp. Ian Fellowes hopes to use a microchip reader to identify the perpetrator. A warm note is introduced by Jane's association with Kempfield, a local institution whose purpose is to "lead the up-and-coming generation away from mischief" via training in useful vocations. A gossipy mystery refreshingly low on violence.

October 24, 2011
At the start of this well-crafted mystery from Scottish author Hammond (A Dog’s Life), surveyor Douglas Young decides to become a real estate developer by buying Underwood House, a neglected property in the countryside outside Edinburgh, and converting it into flats. Unable to secure a bank loan, Douglas turns to potential tenants as investors. These include Seymour MacLeish, a garage owner who hit it big with his first novel and never wrote another word; Mrs. Jamieson, a grass widow with an attractive 19-year-old daughter, Tash, who becomes Douglas’s assistant; and Stan Eastwick, a retired university gardener, who undertakes to care for Underwood’s grounds and do odd jobs in lieu of rent. When Stan’s disagreeable brother, George, finds Stan dead in Stan’s basement flat, the subsequent police investigation reveals that Stan had set up CCTV cameras to observe the female tenants unawares. George’s later disappearance adds to the suspense of this agreeable traditional whodunit.