Title: A Girl Called Love (originally called The Last Honeytrap)
Author: Louise Lee
Publisher: Headline
Publication Date: 28 July 2016
Twitter: @louise_lee1
Blurb
Scott 'Scat'
Delaney is a world famous jazz singer. He has ample opportunity to stray and
his girlfriend, Alice, needs to know she can trust him.
Step up Florence
Love, Private Investigator.
Florence has
just ten days to entrap an A-Lister. Whilst sticking to her cardinal rule: One
kiss, with tongues, five seconds - case closed.
A master of body
language, evolutionary science and nifty disguises, her approach is
unconventional, her success rate excellent. But targets are rarely as beautiful
as Scat. Never fall
for the target.
That is very bad
form indeed.
A Girl Called Love marks the energetic launch of a
brilliant new series. Once you've met Florence Love, you'll see the world in
glorious technicolour at last.
Review
A Girl Called Love is not the funny chick lit mystery that I thought it would
be. It is a whole lot more than that.
Florence Love is a private investigator specialising in
entrapment. She is paid by suspicious spouses to find proof (or not) of their
partner’s unfaithfulness.
Florence is an interesting protagonist. She is smart, attractive,
and devious. I didn’t initially warm to Florence, however she slowly got under
my skin and by the half way point I found that I actually rather liked her as a
character. I was particularly intrigued about her level of self-awareness regarding
her own strengths and weaknesses. As a protagonist, she’s certainly unique!
Florence’s colleague is her younger brother Michael. The
dynamic between Florence and Michael is interesting. She helped to raise him
after their mother Bambi left when they were young. He is somewhere on the autistic
spectrum. Florence spends a lot of time looking after Michael, yet she needs
him just as much as he needs her. The book is almost as much about the
characters as it is about the story and, as a reader, you get a vivid sense of
who they are.
When it comes to the plot, there are twists and turns
galore. Lee certainly has a creative brain!
Why did their mother go missing? Is she still alive? Who was the mystery
man in the car? Is Scott ‘Scat’ Delaney being unfaithful to his fiancée? Will
he fall in love with Florence? Will she fall for him? There are just so many
questions to be answered as the tale progresses. I would love to say that I
guessed how things would turn out, but I really didn’t. I do love a story where
the ending isn’t totally obvious!
Lee has a unique style of writing. I love her use of
vocabulary and I enjoyed her irreverent sense of humour. Whilst I must admit that I wasn’t quite sure
about the book initially, a couple of chapters in and it quickly becomes a
page-turner. A Girl Called Love is funny, feisty and, above all, it’s great fun!
About the Author
Louise Lee was once a Geography teacher. When oxbow lakes
no longer floated her boat, she took the next, natural step in her career
progression and became a Private Investigator. Memorable cases include a
high-functioning bigamist with three wives and six children, who was set to
marry a fourth; and losing a target because George Clooney started chatting her
up in a bar. Though she still does some sleuth work, she’s buggered what with
her photo being so prominently on show to the left. A good job therefore she
has taken the next, natural step
in her career progression and become an author…
Louise is mother to one small girl-baby and
one large boy-man. She undertook a MA in Creative Writing at Birkbeck, and has
had work commissioned by and broadcast on BBC Radio Four.
Her novel, The Last Honeytrap, is the first in
a series – The Last Bigamist and The Last Serial Killer come next. The books
follow the cases of Florence Love, a PI who specialises in entrapment. If
Louise’s mum is reading this, the books are in no way based on her true
experiences. Honest.
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