Tread Softly: 3 (Beatrice Stubbs)

British crime fiction where characters become people and place is part of the story.You dont attract trouble. You go looking for it. On a sabbatical from the Metropolitan Police Beatrice Stubbs is considering her future while touring Northern Spain. In the Basque County she encounters a distant acquaintance. Beautiful bloody-minded journalist Ana Herrero is onto a story. Beatrice scenting adventure offers her expertise. The two women are sucked into a mystery of missing persons violent threats mutilated bodies and industrial-scale fraud. They are out of their depth. With no official authority and unsure who to trust they find themselves up to their necks in corruption blackmail and Rioja. Beatrice calls for the cavalry. The boys are back and this time its a matter of taste. But when her instincts prove fallible Beatrice discovers that justice is a matter of interpretation.Each book works as a stand-alone novel.If you enjoy Martin Walker DL Sayers and Louise Penny youll love Tread Softly.The novel oozes atmosphere and JJ Marsh captures the sights sounds and richness of Spain in all its glory. I literally salivated as I read the descriptions of food and wine. JJ Marsh is an extremely talented author and this is a wonderful novel. - Sheila Bugler author of Hunting Shadows There are moments of farce and irony there are scenes of friendship tenderness and total exasperation - and underlying it all a story of corruption brutality manipulation and oppression with all the elements youd expect to find in a good thriller including a truly chilling villain. - Lorna Fergusson FictionFireRead this and youll be desperate for a seat on a Vitoria balcony with a glass of white Rioja a plate of pinxtos and the next Beatrice Stubbs to accompany them. - Annemarie Neary author of Siren