Another second outing, this time for the legal duo of Fizz and Buchanan.I was very enthusiastic about their debut in Payment Deferred which makes reading the follow up a chancy business; there is no law that says it will maintain the standard set by the first. However I needn't have worried.
Payment Deferred had us on Tam Buchanan's home turf of Edinburgh but Foreign Body transfers us to the Highland home of Fizz Fitzgerald now happily ensconced on a part time basis in the legal practice Tam shares with his father.
The question that had me sleepless after finishing this book was "If Mrs Munro was such a brilliant garden designer, what was she doing with a leylandii hedge for goodness sake ?'
But maybe that's a - you know - personal thing.
Anyway leaving the horticulture aside this is definitely a book to get hold of.The plotting is good (I knew whodunit, or at least whodunnsomeofit but for the life of me couldn't work out what the heck he had done and I really didn't see how all the loose ends could be tied together into the neat , but credible, solution that we got.Fizz are to my mind, a great double act and Holms' lively pithy writing is a joy to read.More please.
CRIME TIME 01 August 98. Anne Artymuick

Edinburgh lawyer Tam Buchanan is convalescing in the Highlands, staying with the grandparents of his assistant Fitz Fitzgerald. While on a walk he and Fizz come across an abandoned tent and later the body of a camper is discovered.
Against his better judgement, Tam allows himself to be persuaded by Fizz into investigating the case.
Foreign Body is Joyce Holms's second novel about this engaging pair: it does not quite have the vivacity of the first, and on her home ground Fizz is less alluring than she was in Edinburgh. But it is pleasant to read and if the dialectic holds good the third should be a humdinger.
Evening Standard (London) 05 Jan 98

This is the second story about a breezy young woman, a law student at Edinburgh, who has taken a young rather sedate, male lawyer under her wing. Here she persuades him into investigating the disappearance of an old lady in the student's home village in the Highlands. Beautifully innocent, light- hearted and brisk.
FE PARDOS CRIMEFILE. Birmingham Post 13/12/97

THIS is the second mystery to feature Fizz and Buchanan, the unlikely sleuthing team busily working against the stunning backdrop of the Scottish Highlands.
TEESIDE EVENING GAZETTE APR 98

It is a good story, light-hearted, full of fascinating characters, and it makes you look forward to more of the exploits of 'Fizz and Buchanan'.
Book Bytes Website

"Tam Buchanan finds himself convalescing in rural Scotland, as arranged by Fizz. But Fizz is convinced not just that a couple of deaths are suspicious but that Tam should help her find out what's going on. I missed Edinburgh a little in this second episode although some of the locals were interesting characters" -
Luci Davin - RAM

This is a terrific read. The mystery is good, the humour, makes you laugh out loud, the characterisation fascinating, I know someone just like Selena, and the relationship between Buchanan and Fizz wonderful. It sparkles.
This book is clever and sparkling and I am already looking forward to the next.
Lizzie Hayes (Editor, Mystery Women).