Moroccan Traffic (Johnson Johnson #7) by Dorothy Dunnett

‘Bifocal spectacles!’ shouted my mother, coughing heavily over her daisy-wheel printer. ‘Now my daughter wastes her time on some self-employed painter with no index-linked company pension?’

In addition to her brilliant historical fiction, Dorothy Dunnett also wrote mysteries. And, while I do not enjoy these mysteries as much as the historical fiction, they are worth reading, ‘Moroccan Traffic’ (originally published in 1991, but since reissued) was the last of the seven books in the Johnson Johnson series. Lady Dunnett had plans to write another after the completion of the House of Niccolo series, but sadly her death in 2001 intervened.  

In this fast-paced mystery, Executive Secretary Wendy Helmann and her mother Doris become caught up in a series of events after a bomb explodes in the office of Wendy’s employer, Kingsley Conglomerates. Johnson Johnson (JJ for short), who has been engaged to paint a portrait of Sir Robert Kingsley, also becomes involved.

Late 1980s Morocco becomes the setting after the explosion, as Sir Robert is trying to arrange a takeover. There are plenty of characters (some more likeable than others), more than enough action to keep the reader occupied (yes, like some of the suspend-your-disbelief set pieces in Lady Dunnett’s historical fiction) and, for those of us old enough to remember the 1980s, reminders that the internet and smartphones did not always rule the world.

This is the second time I have read the novel. This time I read it with a group, which really helped me make more sense of some of the more puzzling parts. Yes, the JJ mysteries can be read as a standalone but as JJ himself is as much a mystery as the various stories he becomes involved in, I’d recommend reading them all.

Plenty of action, and for some of us, plenty of nostalgia as well.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith