FILE UNDER DECEASED
Sarah Lacey
Hodder & Stoughton
ISBN 0 340 58874811 0

Review by Jean Currie

Leah Hunter, a young tax inspector, spends her life on the trail of tax evaders, big and small. She is no respecter of persons - tycoons, market traders, benders of the law, detective sergeants, those who think themselves important and those who prefer to go unnoticed, all get the same treatment, a swift lash of her tongue - though on occasions she wishes she hadn't opened her big mouth.

This relatively normal existence changes when Leah innocently wanders into an art gallery to shelter from a rainstorm - ' ...it would have been more sensible to get a soaking... The corpse I found myself cuddling had looked healthy as well as hunky fifteen minutes before. A Tom Cruise look-alike ...'

The stranger who dies in her arms has been murdered and somebody (as well as the police) thinks she knows more than she should. She sets about tracking others besides tax evaders, and meets rogues, loveable rogues, ruthless villains and a detective sergeant who turns out to be smarter than she thought - not as smart as she is, but that's not to be expected.

This is a book not to be missed, full of humour and wit, brilliant dialogue, saucy backchat, a fast moving story sparely written. Leah is a refreshingly different feisty female sleuth, unlike any tax inspector I've encountered, and I hope to see more of her.