Pigeon Fancying in Leicestershire by John Littlefair
Pigeon Fancying in Leicestershire is a light-hearted and witty book, in which an off-beat, crime-based plot is interwoven with a love story. Lanfranco DeLuca has a passion for pigeon racing, but his prize-breeding bird, recently bought at great expense, is failing to perform his stud duties. Desperate measures involving an avian kidnapping are necessary to restore both his pride and purse. Joe Landseer is tired of life, or at least of London. He's torn between a taste of bucolic harmony at his great aunt's dilapidated small holding in Leicestershire and a career in Brixton as a struggling journalist, supported by his ambitious partner, Louise. To complicate matters, Joe falls for Alice, a scientist working in Leicester on Pigeon Fancier's Lung, who gets caught up in DeLuca's scam. Their lives become amusingly entwined as they attempt to resolve their dilemmas and the mystery of the barren pigeon.