2000 mystery, third in Whitelaw's Jordan Lacey series. Jordan takes
on a job following a woman suspected of compensation fraud against the
local department store, and then tries to track down vanishing stock
in the run-up to Christmas. And of course there's also a murder.
Where the first book took a pleasingly off-beat approach, and the
second showed Jordan being too consciously Zany, this one settles down
into the business of investigation, while still tackling things a
little sideways.
Yes, Jordan is still drooping around lusting after DI James, and is
unable to say anything to him about it because, er, well, because,
look over there I'm sure I saw Elvis. At least she doesn't make any
effort to keep the other two blokes dangling after her. Her asthma
conveniently comes and goes as needed. There's yet another set-piece
implausible trap, from which Jordan has to be rescued.
But Jordan does generally work better here as a character than she has
before. It's just a shame about the mystery, where one problem is
going to be solved with "gurl unq n gjva fvoyvat jr qvqa'g gryy lbh
nobhg", another with "fbzr thl jr zragvbarq bapr, naq jub'f arire orra
ba fgntr, qhaavg", and a chapter or two before the end everyone
decides that it's all over and they can go home, even though there are
clearly plenty of dangling links. I wondered whether this was an
attempt at the realistic untidiness of real-world criminal
investigations, but apparently not.
No, what's good here is Jordan's slightly skewed view of the world,
and the nuts and bolts of paid investigative work. This is better than
the second book, but it only rises to the level of mediocre filler: OK
to listen to on a long car journey, but not a good use of proper
reading time. Followed by Hide and Die.
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