Paul Johnston — Water of Death

New English Library Ltd 1999 Paperback, 391pp. Edinburgh, 2025 - an independent, almost crime-free oasis surrounded by anarchic city states. Except global warming has turned summer into the Big Heat and water, like everything else, is strictly rationed. Citizens live only for the weekly lottery draw while serving the tourists in the year-round festival. When a lottery winner goes missing, subversive investigator Quintilian Dalrymple is called into deal with a minor case of the summertime blues. Then a body is discovered face down in the Water of Leith - the only clue to the death, a bottle of contraband whisky. Quint thinks he sees the first traces of a ruthless conspiracy to destabilise the city. And the body count, like the temperature, keeps on rising . (ISBN: 0340717041). Very Good.