Dear Reader, Confession. I didn't want to get involved in this one - even though I knew, right from the start, that it would be ... challenging. Things are no longer difficult, dangerous, problematic, etc, they are 'challenging'. Like all journeys ... there's another over-worked euphemism for what used to be called solving a nasty, grisly, blood and guts crime, but like all journeys worth taking it began insignificantly and, some might say, ended with me saving the world! Speaking of large egos, I was pushed into Scattered Remains by my son Jaikie, aided and abetted by Dr. Laura Peterson. He's a nice lad is Jaikie - not just an actor anymore, but a Film Star: charming, talented and good looking with a gargantuan opinion of himself. It can take your breath away sometimes which is why I say thank God for Jodie Falconer. *** This is the third story in the Nathan Hawk Murder Mysteries series. A local farmer finds an orthopaedic plate in a field he's harvesting and Hawk reluctantly agrees to try and find the body it might once have been attached to. An engraving on the plate reveals that it was tailor made for a young engineer called Patrick Scott, who broke a metatarsal in a ski-ing accident. Whether he's been murdered or not is another matter... As Hawk begins to ask questions all traces of Patrick Scott are wiped from the National Health Service computer. He doesn't believe in coincidence, so who wants the world to believe that Patrick Scott never existed? And how far will they go to make that happen?