THE LAST TREASURE HUNT

So, a few weeks back I was on a shortlist for a competition that was set up to launch a new Edinburgh literary map app. There were five of us on the shortlist and we attended a launch event for the app, with wine and nibbles aplenty and established literary figures reading - including Ron Butlin whose work I like.

Anyway, I was one of the four runners-up, and usually that is not a nice position to end up in... But I read the winning story by Jane Alexander and was blown away by it and recognised it as a deserving and well worthy winner. Her story was brilliant and her writing was... well, sublime. So much so that I wanted to read more.

A quick internet search revealed that she had a novel published and out just this year, so I hotfooted it to Amazon (please don't hate me for that) and purchased 'The Last Treasure Hunt' and took it with me to an Easter holiday destination in the sun.

To be honest, it was a quick and easy read and not really my cup of tea. It was well enough written and was about the madness and the muck and the mire of the media world. All that celebrity nonsense. It did a good job of showing that world in a dark light whilst keeping the reader easily gripped. But I was looking for that sublime writing of Alexander's winning story and not finding it.... Until chapter 38 when the central character embarks on the last treasure hunt of the title. Chapter 38 just did what Jane Alexander's story did: it blew me away and rocked me on my heels and just felt all fizzy (a favourite expression of Ms Alexander's in this book).

Anyway, 'The Last Treasure Hunt', whilst it was very readable, will not be in my top ten books of the year; but Jane Alexander will most certainly be a writer I shall be looking out for.