Pray and Die — Stella Whitelaw

Someone has to investigate the mean streets of Latching, West Sussex - and that someone is Jordan Lacey, ex-policewoman, now advertising her services as a private investigator in the local paper and working out of a junk shop in the quiet part of town. Will there be enough crime in the sleepy streets of Latching to keep her in business? It looks like there is. Ursula Carling is convinced that her husband is having an affair and employs Jordan to track down the mistress who is sending hate mail. But Ursula isn't telling Jordan everything: for example, her husband died eighteen months ago. Then Jordan discovers the body of a dead nun in an abandoned hotel, along with clues to a hidden World War Two fortune, clues which somehow connect to Ursula Carling. But when she tries to notify the police, in the shape of the devastatingly attractive DI James, she finds herself accused of crying wolf. Not even the slice of poisoned carrot cake she mysteriously received is enough to change his mind. Perhaps it will take an altogether more dramatic attempt on Jordan's life to make DI James sit up and take notice.