A Scottish take on "The Ransom of Red Chief" with felonies obbligato. Veteran author Hammond ventures into territory far removed from his usual fishing/hunting backgrounds (Grail for Sale, 2002, etc.) in this tale of 20ish Alice Dunwoodie, who lives in a Scottish village with her mother and father, a self-described financial consultant. A bitter quarrel with her father over her lack of a job sends Alice storming out to the local bistro, where she meets her friend and neighbor Sarah McLeod, who rejoices in the relative perks of a temp. Walking home, they￯﾿ﾽre confronted at gunpoint by a pair of shabby kidnappers, put in a van, and driven to a decrepit barn prepared for them. But the two putative victims are anything but helpless. Alice soon persuades Foxy Brett and Tod Bracken to move to her family￯﾿ﾽs unused summer cottage. Once there, she and Sarah convince them of their families￯﾿ﾽ lack of big money and of their own willingness to help the clueless crooks find a haul elsewhere--for instance, the strongroom of the local supermarket, where Alice, exulting in her newfound powers, blackmails a worker into helping with the robbery. All seems to go smoothly, but the caper￯﾿ﾽs successful conclusion carries problems of its own. Working them out leads Alice to the shock of her life, a romance, and a return to a kind of normalcy. Feisty if uningratiating characters in a complex, imaginative, though not always convincing story.