After Wallace James suffers a heart attack, he tries to stay home and take it easy, but the unusual drowning of local landowner Kenneth Berry is hard to ignore, especially when it seems foul play was involved.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
Normally, outdoor enthusiast Wallace James runs a sporting-goods shop, but since suffering a heart attack, he's confined to his easy chair, where his most vigorous activities include watching the town square and listening to his CB radio. When Wallace overhears a mysterious snippet of conversation on his CB alluding to blackmail, he figures he's on to something. Was much-despised estate owner Ken Berry's drowning death not the accident it appeared? And was the kiss of life administered to Berry by his archenemy, Colonel McInsch, intended, not to save the victim, but to hasten his death? Piecing together the evidence, Wallace eventually learns the sad and surprising truth about the two men. Set in Scotland and featuring his trademark sporting focus, Hammond's latest offers a solid, no-frills plot, a relaxed, understated writing style, a dollop of dry wit, and a cast of engaging characters. An excellent choice for those who like a no-nonsense, straightforward mystery. Emily Melton
From Kirkus Reviews
It looks as if Wallace James's heart attack will sideline him not only from shooting and fishing but from nosing around into the drowning of Newton Lauder squire Kenneth Berry, who was evidently nearly saved by his archenemy, Colonel Ivor McInsch, MP. But while Wallace is tying flies and bemoaning his inactivity, he happens to overhear a conversation that strongly suggests the colonel is being blackmailed (for perjury? for murder? for some more benign lapse of judgment?). Aided by his formidable wife Janet, who's worth a book of her own, Wallace pulls as gently as any of Hammond's Highlands heroes (Mad Dogs and Scotsmen, 1996, etc.) at the thread that will unravel a tangled criminal skein. This time, though, the skein's a little too tangled, and the unraveling a little too muddled--though housebound Wallace is certainly one of Hammond's liveliest narrators. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Story Moves at About the Same Pace That Fishing Does,
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This review is from: Sink or Swim (Hardcover)
This is not the most action packed, fast moving or thrilling storyline that many a Gerald Hammond novel is. Hammond novels do vary considerably in quality from almost masterpiece reads to how did this get published books. Sink or Swim would fall in the middle. The slow pace of the storyline does force you to stick with the storyline. That slow pace however may just be what you are after if you're actually doing something like fishing.In Sink or Swim a small Scottish town fishing supply store owner Wallace James barely makes it through the wilderness back to civilization before a heart attack finishes him. Bored in the ICU he begs for a shared hospital room instead of private room where he finds customers and other fishing and small town gossip enthusiasts in the beds beside him. They fill him in on the details of the drowning fishing accident death of pain in the neck customer and local landowner Kenneth Barry, details he was unaware of being that he only learnt of his death before his fishing outing. It seems Kenneth was almost saved by his arch enemy MP Colonel McInsch which greatly puzzles the bed lain men. Released from hospital confined to his house listening to a CB radio Wallace overhears a conversation of blackmail involving Mcinsch and decides he must get involved. I'd recommend getting this from your local library. Hammond novels to pay money for are The Dirty Dollar, The Snatch, On the Warpath and A Running Jump
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