STAR STRUCK. (V.McDermid) “H.C.“

Bodyguarding had never made it to Manchester PI Kate Brannigan’s wish list. But somebody’s got to pay the bills at Brannigan & Co, and if the only earner on offer is playing nursemaid to a paranoid soap star, the fast-talking computer-loving white collar crime expert has to swallow her pride and slip into something more glam than her Thai boxing kit. Then offstage dramas threaten to overshadow the fictional storylines till the unscripted murder of the self-styled ‘Seer to the Stars’ stops the show, leaving Kate with more questions than answers. And you just can’t get the help these days. Her process server keeps getting arrested; her tame hacker has found virtual love; her best friend is besotted with baby; and the normally reliable Dennis has had the temerity to get himself arrested for murder as a result of his latest dodgy business venture. Nobody told her there’d be days like these…