Home to Roost

The latest installment in the Keith Calder series (after Let Us Prey ) features Keith's daughter Deborah and detective sergeant Ian Fellowes. A newcomer to the town of Newton Lauder, having been posted there only recently from Edinburgh, Ian makes an excellent narrator, introducing the reader to the characters and capturing the town's atmosphere with the fresh observations of an outsider. The local color and bits of Scots language, which happily bring to mind Burns and Stevenson, hold the reader's interest more than does the rather boring mystery, which concerns poaching and murder. There is some role reversal, with Deborah being a better shot than Ian and enunciating all of the pro-hunting arguments, but in the end tradition wins out. Other than the pigeon shoot, there is very little action. (Dec.)