Liz Evans (1)

If you're going to pick a lock in full view it's best to be open about it. Skulking around looking furtive attracts attention. If you look like you're meant to be there, most people will assume you are. Of course, having a parrot warbling that we're off to see the wizard is something of a handicap if you're trying to be inconspicuous.

Private eye Grace Smith is investigating the twenty-year-old murder of a teacher, on behalf of the daughter of the teenage girl convicted of the murderer. This show more is made harder by the fact that she is simultaneously babysitting Tallulah, a parrot who can't bear to be left alone, in return for free meals at the local greasy spoon.

This is the third book in the series and is just as enjoyable as the first two, although December and his donkeys hardly get a look-in which is a pity. What I like about this series is that they are very funny books, but there is still an underlying sadness due to the murders. The victims are portrayed sympathetically, and the laughs come from other sources. show less

It wasn't until we'd rounded the corner of the stable that I belatedly remembered: December didn't drive any more.
Or, to be accurate, he didn't drive motor cars any more.
'You're joking,' I said faintly as he hitched Lana into the donkey cart harness.
'No. Very fashionable these days. Eco-friendly - isn't that what they call it?'
That wasn't what my acquaintances would call it. I was a private investigator. We sped through our cases in an open-topped sports car, the wind in our hair and funky show more music pounding through our quadrophonic stereo system. It said so in all the gumshoe manuals. How could I retain my street cred if anyone saw me being pulled by one-horse (ish) power?

Now this is more like it! The first in a series of light-hearted detective stories set in an English seaside town. Private detective Grace Smith is hired to investigate the killing of a seaside donkey named Marilyn Monroe, but soon becomes convinced that his death is linked to the murder of a prostitute on the same night. Grace meets many eccentric characters as she investigates the case in hospitals, hospices, old people's homes and night clubs, before she comes to realise who killed Marilyn Monroe and why.

I'm looking forward to the next book in this series. But will it be as good if it doesn't feature December and the lads in a starring role? show less

I eased them open to let in the sea breezes and the gulls' incessant squarking, and then spread Barbra's photo collection over the desk.
She had a camera with an automatic motor; by keeping her finger on the shot button she'd captured half a dozen views of each person from the moment they left the shop door until they were a few yards down the street.
I grouped them into subjects. There were three of them. Barbra was intending to leave her money to a man, a woman ... and a parrot.

Grace has show more been short of work recently but her boss calls her into his office and asks her to take on a case for a friend of his - a millionaire's widow who wants to find out the names and addresses of three people whose photos she took in a nearby village. She is planning to change her will and leave these random strangers all her money, as she doesn't get on with her yobbish son and suspects him of trying to kill her.

As usual Grace isn't having much luck; the detective agency and her flat are both broken into, her best friend and fellow detective Annie is thinking of moving to London, her parents have more or less disowned her and her friends seem to have forgotten her birthday. Her luck with men doesn't seem to be getting any better either. An amusing and enjoyable addition to the Grace Smith series. show less

Grace Smith has always been one of my favourite of the fraught, vaguely madcap female private detective sub-genre for a bunch of different reasons.

Firstly I love Grace herself. Slightly bats definitely, sometimes refreshingly stupid, often times bordering on out of control, there's something refreshingly real and unmanufactured about Grace. She's the sort of girl you could see yourself having a drink with and whilst you might be a bit worried about the state of your shoes at the end of the show more night, your personal ego's not going to come away feeling somewhat underbaked.

Secondly I really love the supporting cast, particularly the other staff at the Detective Agency that Grace works at, most of whom are somewhat mildly bats in their own right.

Lastly I really like the plots of the books, and CUE THE EASTER BUNNY is no disappointment in those stakes, although, to be honest, the ongoing jokes about rabbits got dangerously close to being the biggest attraction.

I've been dodging the inevitable here I guess - is she the English Evanovich? Hate these sorts of comparisons as, apart from the coincidence of similar sorts of central characters - they are different books about different people in a completely different location. Given the choice, if it's my money being shelled out, Grace Smith is a better bet. None of that coy will she / won't she and with which bloke (which last time I tried a Plum book was still dragging on....). With Grace Smith there's nothing coy or cutsey - she is what she is, her love life is as on and off again as she bloody well wants it to be and besides, it's not the only thing in this girls life.

http://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/cue-easter-bunny-liz-evans show less