Murder in the Fourth Round

Despite his fuddled state, Tony Spencer could feel that something was wrong. The poison was in his bloodstream, attacking his nervous system and his heart. Within minutes he was writhing on the ground. Before Ballesteros signed his winning scorecard, he was dead.

Forward to St Andrews in 2015 and when the man convicted of Tony Spencer’s murder is released on compassionate grounds and a political activist is killed, Detective Inspector Flick Fortune’s investigation focuses on a group of solicitors calling themselves ‘The Jolly Boys’ and Spencer’s murder thirty-one years earlier. Detective Sergeant Bagawath ‘Baggo’ Chandavarkar comes to her aid. Meanwhile, Flick’s old nemesis, ex-Inspector No, is hired to clear the man convicted in 1984 and he stirs things up in his own intimitable, blundering way. As long-buried crimes are revealed, events move quickly and unpredictably to a startling conclusion.

Murder in the Fourth Round has an intelligent plot combined with interesting characters and humour, all while confronting contemporary issues including dementia, the problems of a working wife and mother, a historic miscarriage of justice and the age-old problem of whether the end justifies the means. Ian Simpson has been inspired by the works of Agatha Christie, John Mortimer and PG Wodehouse and his writing style has been compared to Christopher Brookmyre. Murder in the Fourth Round is the fourth in this gripping series. It follows the success of Murder on Page One, Murder on the Second Tee and Murder in Court Three, all of which have received national and local praise.