Crack Down

She's a rising star in Britain and Europe. Now Americans are beginning to discover award-winning former journalist Val McDermid and her acclaimed Kate Brannigan series set in the northern English city of Manchester. There is only one reason private eye Kate Brannigan would let her boyfriend Richard Barclay, a writer on rock music, help out with an investigation: nothing bad could happen to him. But when Kate and Richard pose as a married couple and go undercover to investigate a car-sales fraud, the unexpected soon occurs. While trying to figure out how the dealerships are cheating the manufacturers, Richard takes a drive in a luxury car that he and Kate have supposedly bought. It's a beautiful ride, until the police discover that the car is full of drugs. Richard can't prove that the stash is not his, so he finds himself behind bars, with some of Manchester's most violent criminal element out for his blood. Worse still, Kate ends up in charge of his eight-year-old son, who leads her into even more trouble than his accident-prone father. And if Richard's ex-wife discovers the situation, Richard may never see his child again. It's not easy, looking after a child and investigating a case that takes Kate into the city's sordid underbelly as she attempts to learn the truth and clear Richard's name. A literary cousin to Sara Paretsky's V.I. Warshawski and Liza Cody's Anna Lee, Val McDermid's Kate Brannigan is a memorable fictional creation from a powerfully gifted writer.