Nesbitt is fine in the lead role, Crosbie is good as the owner of the bed and breakfast, but this drama is let down by the relationship between Nesbitt and the officer. However, when the only vehicular access for thirty miles is cut off it seems that events are being orchestrated not just for pleasure. I returned this book without finishing it but I did give it a good three hours before calling it a day.

Another sub-plot is the relationship between Nesbitt's character and the police officer on the case, this is a bit distracting from the main plot and doesn't really fit in the story, A good sub-plot is about a hit-man (the one that performed the murder, revealed early in the story) with a missing finger who then stays at a bed and breakfast who kills the owners (annette Crosbie) dog and tries to dispose of it, this is an interesting and entertaining sub-plot that doesn't have relevance on the story. Each from a different perspective, Dalziel, Parlabane and Slaughter look into the murder. There are several possibilities too. For one thing, Ponsonby was known to have a gambling problem, so one of his gambling lenders might have decided to make an example of him. Then, there’s his ‘hospital life.’ He might easily have made enemies there too. As the three get closer to the truth, it becomes clear that Ponsonby’s murder is the proverbial tip of an iceberg. There is much more going on than it seems on the surface, and if Parlabane can stay alive long enough, he’ll have a career-making story. Certainly a story to listen to again, highly entertaining and even when you know whodunnit, these are characters well worth re-visiting. In the famous novel “Animal Farm” by George Orwell, a group of farm animals is ruled by which animal?

Angelique De Xavier, his previous nemesis, is drafted onto the police team trying to bring this one-man celebrity hate-fest to an end. But she can't do it alone, she needs the magical skills of her lover, only she doesn't know where Zal is and meanwhile a whole load of celebs are, literally, dying to be famous.

My TV guide listed this as a detective movie, which it isn't, really. It's just a light-hearted drama, that focuses more on the several sub-plots than on the main story. And there are quite some sub-plots. A clumsy assassin-subplot, an ex-girlfriend-subplot, even the cliché policewoman-falls-in-love-with-the-main-character-subplot. Truth was, if you were going to believe something, it was best to believe in stuff that made the world seem a more interesting place.” Quite Ugly One Morning is a comically dark, sometimes quite gory, often very witty look at what happens when medicine, politics and greed get too friendly with each other. It features strong protagonists who don’t take themselves overly seriously, and it offers some thoughtful social commentary in the midst of it all. Detective Superintendent Catherine McLeod has one major Glaswegian gangster in the mortuary and another in the cells for killing him - which ought to be cause for celebration. Catherine is not smiling, however. From the moment she discovered a symbol daubed on the victim's head, she has understood that this case is far more dangerous than it appears on the surface, something that could threaten her family and end her career.

All across the USA, people are showing up dead. The deaths don't appear to be connected in any way until one particular death occurs and gets the Secretary of Defense's attention. He arranges for a task force to investigate.