Liza Cody introduced Anna Lee, an early female private investigator in the book Dupe (Collins, 1980), which won the CWA John Creasey Memorial Dagger for best debut crime novel of the year in 1981 and was nominated for the Edgar Award for Best First Novel in 1982. Anna spent five years on the London police force and left due to sheer boredom. Her life working for Brierly Security is not much more interesting but she persists and she’s rewarded when an assignment comes her way that turns out to be much more complicated than Martin Brierley thought it was when he gave it to her.
Young Deirdre Jackson died in a one-car crash one night. The police saw nothing remarkable about the death but her devastated parents are not satisfied. Mr. Jackson owned multiple automobile agencies and raced cars occasionally. He taught Deirdre how to drive and how to repair her own vehicle. There is no way she would have made rudimentary mistakes in driving. The Jacksons are convinced foul play was involved and hire Brierly Security to learn more about the accident, Deirdre’s life in London, and her friends. Deirdre had become frustrated with her parents and her home life in Wiltshire and seldom visited after establishing residence in London. Her parents did not know where she worked and who the people around her were. They weren’t the only ones who did not know much about Deirdre, her various roommates and employers knew little about her and what they did know was mostly fictitious.
Anna demonstrates intelligence and thoroughness in identifying and developing investigational avenues with little material to work with. Sorting what was real and what was Deirdre’s imagination took some thought and perception. The down-to-earth London setting is an attractive part of the narrative, as is Anna herself.
There are five more books in the series, which was adapted for television and first aired in 1993 on ITV with Imogen Stubbs as Anna. Cody has also written three books about a professional wrestler and a half-dozen stand-alone novels.