Kate Brannigan

Diamond Dagger Award-Winning Author: Two mysteries introducing a Thai boxing, rock-and-roll female private detective from Manchester, England... As a favor to her rock journalist boyfriend, Kate Branningan agrees to track down missing song-writer Moira Pollock, a search that takes her into some of the seediest parts of Leeds and Bradford. But little does she realize that finding Moira is only a prelude to murder. Juggling her other cases, including a search to uncover the source of counterfeit luxury goods, Brannigan finds herself for the first time on the trail of a killer. In Kick Back, Kate Brannigan investigates the bizarre case of the missing conservatories. Before long she's up to her neck in crooked land deals, mortgage scams, financial chicanery, and murder. But when a favor for a friend puts Kate's own life in danger, bizarre is not the first word she thinks of...

In Blue Genes, Kate Brannigan's not just having a bad day, she's having a bad week. The worst week of her life, if you really want to know. Her boyfriend's death notice is in the paper, her plan to catch a team of fraudsters is in disarray and a neo-punk band want her to find out who's sabotaging their publicity. And her business partner wants her to buy him out. If only she had the cash. Kate can't even cry on her best friend's shoulder, for Alexis has worries of her own. Her girlfriend's pregnant, and when the doctor responsible for the fertility treatment is murdered, Alexis needs Kate like never before. So what's a girl to do? Delving into the alien world of medical experimentation and the underbelly of the rock-music business, Kate confronts betrayal and cold-blooded greed as she fights to save not only her livelihood, but her life as well... Body guarding never made it to Manchester PI Kate Brannigan's wish list. But in Star Struck, Kate's still broke, and the only earner on offer is playing nursemaid to a paranoid soap star. So this time Kate has to swallow her pride and slip into something more glam than her Thai boxing kit. But when offstage dramas threaten to overshadow the fictional storylines, and the unscripted murder of the self-styled "Seer to the Stars" stops the show, it leaves Kate with more questions than answers...

Two novels starring a tough PI in Manchester, England, from an author known for "crime writing of the very highest order" (The Times). There was only one reason Manchester-based private eye Kate Brannigan was prepared to let her boyfriend help out with the investigation into a car sales fraud: Nothing bad could happen. In Crack Down, Kate learns once again that with Richard, you have to expect the unexpected. This time the unexpected is that he's currently behind bars-so Kate will be looking after his eight-year-old while at the same time being dragged into a world of drug traffickers, gangland enforcers, and the worst the criminal element has to offer. And in Clean Break, Kate is not amused when thieves have the audacity to steal a Monet from a stately home where she's arranged security. She's even less thrilled when the hunt for the thieves drags her on a treacherous foray across Europe as she goes head to head with organized crime. And as if that isn't enough, a routine industrial case starts leaving a trail of bodies across the Northwest. Unfortunately, cleaning up this mess will mean confronting some truths about her own life...