Review: Water of Death by Paul Johnston. 07/16/2017

This is an older novel but I found it kept me interested until the very end. It was well-written and I enjoyed the characters. The author created a somewhat humorous mystery in a near future setting in Edinburgh, 2025. It was a who-done-it plot with clever dialogue as a diversion that makes the story more interesting and not so political.

When following the main character Quint Dalrymple, a former cop and chief investigator for the selected Council needs to pay attention when he investigates a series of murders during an exceptional hot summer (global warming) that doesn’t help his behavior or attitude. The people of Edinburgh are suffering through a sever water shortage while the city’s reservoirs flows generously for the foreign tourist who support the local economy. Water has been rationed to the citizens and now whiskey has been banned because someone poisoned the whiskey and people were dying. The first victim was a winner of a lottery that was designed to take residents minds off of how poorly the independence movement explained and clarified the drug wars and economic disaster that weakened in the early 2000’s. The lottery Grand Prize is a five minute shower per week for a month…

Quint, the modern revolutionary investigator becomes more conflicted than usual because a former lover is suspected to be the poison culprit. As the body count raises investigator Quint Dalrmple faces a ruthless conspiracy that threatens the city. As the rest of the story unfolds and the body count goes higher as they find bodies in the water of the Leith the city Council is in a panic, a city in fear, and a pressured Quint trying to solve and stop whomever was behind the disaster…. ( )

This book is one in a series set in Edinburgh, Scotland in the 2020's after the world economy has collapsed into scattered city-states due to wars and drugs. Edinburgh is tightly run by the Guardians with the support of auxiliaries, who are referred to by their numbers rather than their names. The Guardians proclaim the city crime-free, but then hire Quint (Quintilian) Dalrymple to solve the crimes that occur. Quint is supported by a great group of friends and acquaintances who are interesting and well fleshed out. The series is amusing and entertaining.

The third book occurs during a summer heatwave, and Quint has to solve a series of murders involving whiskey and water. ( )

The classic noir private eye is someone whose life orbits around the violent and macabre--normality defies their raison d'être. Such is life or Quintilian Dalrymple, the blues-haunted hero of Paul Johnston's dystopian future, Water of Death.

By 2025, Britain has split into independent city-states, with Edinburgh as the "perfect city." Everything from electricity to sex is rationed and a zero-crime level has been achieved at the cost of individualism. "Quint" is a quintessential PI, whose existence is justified by sudden violence and relegated to the dregs when the effects of global warming hit Edinburgh. With water rationed, citizens are mindlessly devoted to two things: the year-round tourist festival and the weekly lottery (Grand Prize: a five-minute shower per week for a month). The mundane peace is shattered with the death of a demoted "auxiliary", or policeman, found in the Water of Leith. The only clue is a bottle of lethal contraband whisky and, as the body count rises, Quint must deal with duplicity, corruption and a ruthless conspiracy.

Johnston beautifully mixes Noir and Orwellian politics with the bonus of sly social satire: "... the Council set up a compulsory lottery last year, turning greed in to a virtue and most citizens into deluded fortune hunters."

This is the second of this series I ahve read - I'll be back for more. ( )