A Healthy Body ’Birdie' Linnet was in pursuit of his wife who had run off with a richer man and taken their daughter too. His vehicle was a bicycle, not ideal for chasing Ralph Shunner's Jaguar across France. Why had Shunner chosen a nudist package holiday for the first outing with his new 'family'? Birdie thought Shunner was 'a four star hotel merchant, if ever there was one'.
A recent imbroglio had led Birdie to resign his position as a police officer. So he had lost both his job and his family at about the same time. He was full of anger, aggravated by the blistering heat of his bicycle ride under the French summer sun.
The camp - the Villa ZOË (Zestful, Outgoing, Energised) - held many horrors in store, but the worst of them was a corpse in the sand dunes. And perhaps a tank full of seaweed wasn’t the perfect place to hide it after all.
Birdie's position became ever more precarious as a whole trainload of disasters gathered pace. Much diversion is provided by a grasping starlet called Melanie.
Amusing dialogue and some occasional outright farce adorn an efficient plot that brings this first novel to a dramatic culmination. 'Filthy rich financier with a plethora of unloving ex-wives slaughtered on the ski slopes with a crossbow. Amiable layabout ex-cop Birdie Linnett and girlfriend Nimue are there with a bunch of comprehensive school yobbos. Fast action even nursery slopers can follow.' Marcel Berlins, The Times
'A nicely judged mixture of comedy and crime: an inventive and sparkly debut.' Nina Bawden
A Healthy Body
A Healthy Body