This one's a bit of a departure for me being a straight, non-supernatural murder mystery set in the home of golf, St. Andrews, Scotland

St. Andrews is a lovely old town, and I've spent many a happy hour wandering its streets, castles, ruined abbey, graveyards, coastline and beaches.

And then there's the pubs. Way back when I was a student we used to make forays from Glasgow, to play darts, heckle the posh lads, and drink ourselves silly. I've grown up ( a wee bit ) since then, and more recent forays were much more sedate, giving me a chance to talk at more leisure to the older residents.

Some of them made their way into this book, a tale of skullduggery on the Old Course, garrulous old men in pubs, tired cops, local hard men and a bone weary detective who is the spiritual brother of my other P.I. Derek Adams, the Midnight Eye over in Glasgow.

I thoroughly enjoyed writing this; as I said, it was a departure for me. Since then the monsters have always crept in when I've tried something else in a similar vein ( THE EXILED - I'm looking at you in particular ), but maybe I'll be back, wandering the old streets again in the future.