‘Jumping the Cracks’ by Victoria Blake

Published by Orion,
15 November 2007.
ISBN 978-0-7528-7461-6

For PI Sam Falconer Oxford is her home, it’s where she grew up, but it is also the city of her nightmares—a place of sin and secrets.  So why is she setting up a branch of her detective agency in Oxford? Maybe to confront the darkest of her childhood memories.

She undertakes a job guarding a collection of museum pieces. And then into her life comes Norman Lester Sweetman. A good-looking man with warm brown eyes an engaging manner and a little overweight.  He explains that he is looking after a dog called Pipsqueak, and before she knows it Sam is looking after Pipsqueak—just for one night you understand.

The job at the museum turns into murder, and Pipsqueak look like being a permanent fixture as Norman Sweeting seems to have disappeared, and the situation with Sam’s new lover seems to have hit stormy waters. And Norman – well – he was plausible charming, but not a truthful word had passed his lips since she had first met him.

I have loved all the books in this series, and this is the best yet.  Veronica Blake pulled a surprise on me and I am not going to share it with you, read the book and enjoy it yourself.
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Reviewer: Lizzie Hayes
Earlier books in the series Bloodless Shadow, Cutting Blades, Skin and Blister.

Victoria Blake is the author of three highly acclaimed crime novels featuring female private eye Sam Falconer - Bloodless Shadow, Cutting Blades and Skin and Blister, with a fourth to be published shortly. She spent her childhood in Queen's College, Oxford, where her father was Provost, and is also a qualified solicitor who has worked in publishing and bookselling.