11. Bad Company by Liza Cody

I picked this one up at the Kitsilano branch of the great Pulp Fiction bookstore in Vancouver. The British packaging caught my eye and the blurbs made it sound like it might have the right stuff. The protagonist is a female private investigator in contemporary London. Bad Company might not have been the best place to start since the heroine spends the whole time kidnapped, but it was an entertaining and well-written read nonetheless. The London underworld is richly portrayed and the lowlifes, from the stupid, inexperienced thugs who pull off the kidnapping to the serious hard and well-dressed ones who are trying to stop them as well fit well into the British empirical mold. The ending was a bit anti-climactic, but I think realistic. I'll be keeping an eye open for other Liza Cody books.