Pamela 3 – Foreground and Background

First of all, here’s the Amazon UK link to buy ‘The Body on the Hill’ which will now work for a paperback version as well as the ebook: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0GH11Z144

I also now have a link for non-Amazon sales (ebooks only at present). At the time of writing, this link covers Smashwords, Apple, Kobo and Barnes and Noble as well as some others: https://books2read.com/u/brlzvA

Now, a few words about the setting for much of the book’s action., which is a local nature reserve on Corstorphine Hill, a place which is very familiar to me and which might be said to have inspired the plot for the book, or at least the beginning of the story. Technically I think our house is actually situated on the lower slopes of the hill, so it has always been a kind of playground for us. As well as the nature reserve, Edinburgh Zoo takes up a large part of ‘our’ side of the hill and there is a secret bunker on the far side which has now been restored and can be visited sometimes. Wikipedia has a good article about the hill here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corstorphine_Hill

Despite all temptations I haven’t used either the secret bunker or the Zoo as settings.. However the part of the hill that’s a nature reserve has lots of great walks for dogs, as well as some interesting geological features and old quarries, and this is really where the story starts.

On one occasion, some years ago, I came out of the car park not far from the secret bunker with our ancient black Labrador and almost immediately encountered a woman (also with a dog – at certain times of day anyone walking there without a dog is regarded with suspicion) who was quite distressed. She had just met another dog-walker at the top of the hill who had been walking two dogs when one of them collapsed and died suddenly, and who was panicking because she didn’t know how she was going to get herself and both dogs off the hill. I couldn’t see how I could help at the time as my own dog wouldn’t even have made it up to the top of the hill, and it happened before having a mobile phone with you was the norm, but I remembered the incident for a long time as it made me think about what I would have done in the circumstances. It was only much later, when I was thinking of a setting for Pamela 3 that my thoughts turned to murder.

I hasten to add that, apart from reading in the local paper about a Jack Russell terrier who got stuck in a rabbit-hole somewhere on the hill and had to be dug out by the Fire Brigade, I haven’t heard of any other animal-related catastrophes happening up there. It’s generally very safe for dog-walkers and their dogs, since it’s a large area and once you get up to the top it’s a long way to the nearest road. Professional dog-walkers take their packs of dogs there too. At most times of day you can walk for a long time before encountering anyone else, and we used to have some favourite spots for games of hide and seek. There’s also a tower that was built in memory of Sir Walter Scott, with a staircase that leads up to the top. It’s often open to the public on Sundays, and there is a virtual tour on this webpage: https://www.cockburnassociation.org.uk/openedinburgh/corstorphine-hill-tower/

I hope this bit of background will be of some interest to anyone who reads ‘The Body on the Hill’ as there is quite a lot about the topography in the book!