14 Aug 2012 23:47:57
Between the South Downs and the seafront, England's southeast has spawned some sterling alternative crime fiction of late, via imprints like Eastbourne's Soul Bay and Brighton's Pulp Press. Now add to that Ruth Ramsden, whose debut encapsulates the full gamut of Sussex weirdness, invoking the Hammer legend Charles Gray in the opening paragraph and finishing with the sort of Fifth of November night that opponents of the region's Bonfire Societies warn you about. Inadvertent private eye JJ is an arty dominatrix, pulled by her corset straps into dangerous intrigue by the murder of a kinky friend and a set of blackmail photographs implicating the local ganglord, subsequently delivered to her door, with the victim's car keys. Why the man was killed and who wants to implicate JJ is what she needs to know. Unwilling to involve the law, JJ turns to her own community at the Pink Parrot fetish club. Mentioning Miss Marple in the press release might be unwise, but aficionados of Christa Faust, Joolz Denby and Grant Morrison – enjoy.
