Dead Man Driving by Lesley Kelly

Two years into a devastating flu pandemic, food shortages are critical. When the government proposes rationing, angry people take to the streets. 

Carlotta Carmichael MSP is organising a high profile meeting of international Virus ministers. When a lorryload of luxury food for her ministerial dinner gets hijacked, she calls on the unwilling assistance of the North Edinburgh Health Enforcement Team to track it down - to save her blushes and prevent the protests flaring into riots. While the lorry proves easy to find, the identity of the dead woman in its hold is less easy to establish. 

Everyone's hungry. Everyone's scared. And the Health Enforcement Team are driving blind.

About the author

Lesley Kelly has worked in the public and voluntary sectors for the past twenty years, dabbling in poetry and stand-up comedy along the way. She has won several writing competitions and her debut novel, A Fine House in Trinity, was long-listed for the William Mclvanney award in 2016. She can be followed on Twitter (@lkauthor) where she tweets about writing, Edinburgh and whatever else takes her fancy.

Review

How have I never read this series before? It’s packed full of dark humour, brilliant characters and a great story to boot! This is the fifth book in the series and it can be read as a stand-alone quite easily. I will be going back to read the rest of the series as I completely loved my time with the HET. This set in a fictional virus-ridden (flu, not COVID) Edinburgh, it follows the Health Enforcement Team and its members Bernard and Maitland.

Food shortages are raging across Edinburgh and when a food truck which was headed for the government is found with a dead body inside the HET team is called upon to solve the mystery. Tensions are running high across the city, with demonstrations against the government even though groups are forbidden due to the virus.

Bernard and the team are brilliantly formed characters and absolutely hilarious. I particularly loved Bernard and his biting wit. The story was fast-paced and I flew through this in one day. It was extremely well written and although they are some dark topics the humour balances it out. For some reading about a pandemic might still be too close to home but I found it was different enough to embrace it.

Let me know if you pick this one up!