Liza Cody

From Publishers Weekly Like Miss Marple and Lord Peter Wimsey, Eva Wylie, introduced in Bucket Nut, is a character of such convincing reality, it's hard to believe she doesn't exist somewhere. She also, like them, inhabits a fully believable world, but hers revolves around a gym?she's a villainous female wrestler?and two vicious watch dogs in the toughest part of London. Nicknamed the London Lassassin, the deeply moral Eva finds her personal code put to the test when the diminutive, monkey-faced Crystal, the closest thing to a friend Eva will allow herself, asks for help in finding and punishing her prostitute sister's killer. Eva reluctantly agrees?and ends up paying a high personal price. What propels this unconventional mystery (in which Cody's other series heroine, Anna Lee, briefly appears) is less the need to discover whodunit than the power of Eva's voice as she tells her story: menacing, barely in control of her rage, but also vulnerable, funny and on the side of the angels. The pace is breathless and jittery, much like the London Lassassin herself, who is a singular treasure.

Introducing Londoner Eva Wylie, a professional wrestler, junkyard security guard and genuinely off-the-wall heroine. Told with all the confidence and style of Cody's successful Anna Lee series, this story is more an adventure than a mystery; many of the crimes are committed by Eva herself, who is not above swiping the odd wallet or automobile. Occasionally Eva runs errands for Mr. Cheng, whose official business she doesn't ask about. While collecting a protection payment from a nightclub, she is offered some "crowd control" work for that evening. When a police raid halts the band's set, Eva whisks a totally stoned backup singer off to the safety of her trailer home. "Goldie," as Eva dubs the singer, charms her protector and even gets the junkyard dogs to eat out of her hand. But Goldie brings problems with her, and Eva has enough of her own, especially when Mr. Cheng sends her on another, very different errand. To make things worse, an annoying PI named Anna Lee keeps nosing around, looking for someone named Eleanor Crombie. If, as Cody hints, Anna and Eva team up, they could make some beautiful mysteries together--assuming Eva stays out of traction and out of jail.

Private investigator Anna Lee is asked to hunt down stolen high-fashion designs in London. The trail leads her to Florida where a detective offers to help her out.

Anna Lee is thrown into the flamboyant world of rock star security and protection.

Nanny Penny Keeling knows working for strong-but-silent Santo De Luca will be a challenge, but she's determined to do it for his little girl's sake. And she's equally determined not to fall for her dangerously attractive boss—she's been burned before....Penny is pretty, charming and utterly beddable—and under the fiery Italian sun Santo seduces her....It was meant to be only an affair. Now Penny has announced she's pregnant....

Seventeen Detection Club colleagues join together to create a surprise 80th birthday tribute to H.R.F. Keating that may be the most unusual festschrift ever assembled. Practically every contributor has chosen to memorialize a particular aspect of Inspector Ghote’s creator. Lionel Davidson focuses on his birthday celebration, Tim Heald his beard, Liza Cody his fascination with Hindu mythology, Catherine Aird a second-hand encounter with Keating in the south of France, editor Lovesey his hobby of “popping round to the post,” Len Deighton (in his first short story in 30 years) his passion for Sherlock Holmes. Robert Barnard takes off from Keating’s dislike of airports; Jonathan Gash sets a romantic triangle on a ship out of Bombay; June Thomson inscribes a dying message inspired by Keating; P.D. James traces the impact of a Ghote novel on a murder at school; and James Melville recalls Keating’s charlady/sleuth Emma Craggs. Thinly disguised versions of Keating are suspects in the stories of Reginald Hill, Colin Dexter and Michael Z. Lewin. In honor of Keating’s verse novel Jack the Lady Killer, Simon Brett supplies a short story in verse. Andrew Taylor and Michael Hartland venture further afield before Sheila Keating concludes the volume with a reprint of her husband’s “Arkady Nikolaivich.” --Kirkus review