The Police song, ‘Every Breath You Take’, was a huge hit n its initial release back in the early 1980s, and has been one of the most popular records on radio stations specialising in older songs. It has also been chosen by thousands of couples to be played at their wedding, which demonstrates the extent to which people can remain blind to a work’s central theme. It may be a love song, but it is also a rather bleak confession of a would-be stalker.

Michelle Spring does recognise the meaning of the song, and it proves an apposite title for her first novel featuring private detective Laura Principal. Ms Principal is an intriguing character. Her first career choice had been as an academic, lecturing in history at what is clearly meant to be a precursor of the Anglia Ruskin University (not the ‘Angela Raskin University’, as one of my friends genuinely misheard it). Deciding that academia was not for her, she eventually found herself working as a private detective, engaged primarily in commercial cases related to attempted business espionage.

Laura and her closest friend Helen jointly own a cottage in Norfolk where they spend occasional weekends retreating from the stresses f regular life. Having found that this was proving a drain on their respective finances, they were delighted when a friend of a friend mooted the idea of buying into their ownership of the cottage. This seems like a great solution until the new partner, Monica, is found brutally murdered in her Cambridge flat. Although she already has a few cases on her books, Laura conducts her own investigation alongside that pursued by the police, and finds that Monica had been scared for some time, convince that she was being watched and followed wherever she went.

The story is well constructed, and Michelle Spring maintains a deft balance between Laura’s investigation of Monica’s murder and her existing cases. The suspense is taut, and the characters are well drawn. I have a vague recollection of seeing Michelle Spring interviewed on television several years ago, and believe that this story was inspired by her own experiences of having been stalked, before the offence was as well recognised as it is now.

My only cavil about the novel was that it seemed to end very quickly. Having carefully laid the plot to a taut denouement, it was suddenly all over. ( )

love how the author uses lots of places around Cambridge. Good characters and good plotting. Built into the East Anglican Caper. Michelle had dinner with us and went punting, and she showed us the house of Jeffrey Archer in Grantchester. ( )