In The Case of the Case of Kilcladdich, golden-age gadabout Anty Boisjoly travels to the timeless source waters of Glen Glennegie to help decide the fate of his family’s favourite ferment, but an impossible locked room murder is only one of a multitude of mysteries that try Anty’s wits and witticisms to their northern limit.

Time trickles down on the traditional tipple as Anty unravels family feuds, ruptured romance, shepherdless sheep, and a series of suspiciously surfacing secrets to sort out who killed whom and how and why and who might be next to die.

Tim Bruce returns as ever-optimistic Anty, his heirloom valet Vickers, and two entire Scottish villages, sheep included, and manages to keep everyone distinct and distilled and delightful, even after the whisky kicks in during a golf match which is hilarious on paper but which Tim raises to a pro tour de force.

The Case of the Case of Kilcladdich is another stand-alone, locked room puzzler for those who like a little kidding in their killing and mirth in their mystery, and wouldn’t object one bit to a conspiracy between Agatha Christie and PG Wodehouse.

Phillip Fitzsimmons