Sick As a Parrot — Liz Evans

There is a moment in every case when you realize things aren't going as planned; in this case it was being perched half-naked up an oak tree with a drop-dead sexy murder suspect a few feet away.....

Adopted at birth, Hannah Conti's attempts to trace her family turned up a mother convicted of murder twenty years ago. Convinced that her mother is innocent, Hannah hires Grace to prove it.

Glad of any chance to get out of the office (the boiler's broken and the plumber can't come until next July) Grace uncovers the story of the very messy murder of Trudy Hepburn - a science teacher at St Martin's Comp. Along the way she's obstructed by a lot of people who'd rather she stopped digging, and aided by an ex-copper with a shady past (and an even shadier present) and a mysterious emailer who keeps sending tantalizing clues.

To add to the complications, she'd been conned into bird-sitting a psychotic parrot and Terry Rosco, the most chauvinistic cop in Seatoun, is homeless and keeps trying to move into her spare room. And, oh yes - someone keeps trying to kill her.....