It seemed for a while in the 1980s and 1990s that the biggest growth area in fiction was the sub-genre featuring female private detectives. This boom was seen on both sides of the Atlantic, with a crop of excellent female sleuths appearing. Prominent among the American ranks were Sara Paretsky’s redoubtable V I Warshawski, Linda Barnes’s Carlotta Carlyle (who subsidised her investigation work by driving a cab around Boston), and Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone, who featured in the ‘Alphabet’ series. Back in Blighty we had, among many others, Liza Cody’s Anna Lee (brought to life on television by Imogen Stubbs), Joan Smith’s fiery academic, Loretta Lawson, and Michelle Spring’s wonderful Laura Principal (another some time academic).

Liz Evans had already published a few non-crime novels under other names, but chose to enter into this busy sector with Who Killed Marilyn Monroe?, which introduced ex-copper Grace Smith, who worked in the fictional coastal Kent resort of Seatoun. This book marked her second outing, and was very enjoyable.

There are certain aspects of life as a fictional private investigator that seem hard for any writer to shake off. The sleuth has to be jaundiced in their outlook on life (feasible, really given that they constantly mine the seedier aspects of society), live dangerously near the edge of financial survival, and thrive on wise cracking ripostes to any challenge. As far as that goes, Liz Evans leaves no cliché knowingly overlooked, but the book is none the worse for that. Grace Smith is capable and effortlessly empathetic, and her one-liner remarks are funnier than most.

I don’t want to embark on a synopsis of the plot as it is quite intricate, and I don’t want to risk inadvertent spoilers. I did, however, find it an appealing addition to a well-populated genre, and I will be looking for further books in the series. ( )

'Don't feed them on the beach, lass, you'll have all the kiddies round wanting to give them rock and candyfloss and heaven knows what.'
'Sorry.'
I put the carrot into the bag and left it lying on its side with a wink in Humphrey's direction.
With an expression of wide-eyed innocence, he lowered his head and started wandering casually across the sand, each shuffle of his hooves bringing the swinging muzzle a fraction closer to the abandoned bag.

The further adventures of ex-police officer Grace Smith, working as a private detective in the down-market seaside town of Seatoun.

This time Grace is working on two missing person cases. A blind man has asked her to find a jogger he often chatted to on the beach while walking his dog in the early mornings even though he doesn't know her name, address or what she looks like, while a rich and spoiled schoolgirl wants her to find the married man she started dating after he did some building work at her school. ( )