Cue the Easter Bunny

CUE THE EASTER BUNNY - Liz Evans

Author Information

Book Title:

Author Name:

Liz Evans

Author's Home Country:

United Kingdom

ISBN:

9780752878171

Series:

Grace Smith

Categorisation

Category:

Crime Fiction

Sub Genre:

Private Detective

Humour

Location:

United Kingdom

Publisher:

Orion

Year of Publication:

2007

Spring has come to the faded seaside town of Seatoun. Vetch’s Investigations is buzzing with clients, but Grace Smith is the only one without a client. The situation has become so desperate that Grace has taken a job with the local Tourist Board. Dressed as the Easter Bunny, she's supposed to be promoting the town’s “child friendly” image.

Unfortunately, a series of encounters with kids who can't resist tormenting dumb creatures results in Grace being the first bunny to be nicked in Seatoun for Grievous Bodily Harm.

Book Review:

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 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.