Risking it All

Risking it All by Ann Granger. (A Fran Varady Crime Novel)

Series: A Fran Varady Crime Novel
Hardcover: 314 pages
Publisher: Headine; First Edition edition (2001)
ISBN-10: 0747274746

Ann Granger's Fran Varady novels take us to the streets of today's London where Fran, a young woman who is constantly struggling to find employment and a place to live, rubs shoulders with friends and foes, tramps, con men, cops, shopowners - and in this case also her dying mother.
This is a shock because her mom walked out on Fran and her dad 14 years before, when Fran was 7 years old, and hadn't been heard from since. Now a sleazy PI finds Fran at her mom's request - and another shock follows when Fran gets to the hospice: Fran has a young half sister. And mom has a dying wish...
Yes, this plunges Fran into a round of encounters with strangers all over town, and a dead body on her doorstep, and worse. Except for the fact that Fran is to her residences roughly what Janet Evanovich's protagonist Stephanie Plum is to her cars (a jinx to put it mildly), this was a satisfying and interesting book.

This is my third crime novel by Ann Granger, featuring Fran Varady as the main protagonist. 

I have to say that I have enjoyed all 3 books, but I think this is my favorite of the three! 

From the beginning Ann Granger seems to tell a simple story (involving crime solving of course), using simple words, but still manages to turn tables and have surprises while reading.

I think I connected with her character of Fran Varady.  Not because I ever want to be a detective, or her so called wish to be an actor.. but because her mother left her when she was very young. (my father did the same, I don't have a single memory of him) .  Her life was not easy, neither was mine with my mother supporting 2 kids alone.  And so there are levels I feel like I know where she coming from.  These facts keep anyone rooting for her to go on and yet afraid something bad could happen.

This story would have been my dream come true, because in this book, the mother who ran out and never saw her again, found her before she died.  She got to meet her mother again.  Something I never had the chance to do with my father.  It makes me wonder at times, how some of these authors come up with their material.

Anyway... The 3 books I've read are: Rattling the Bones, Mixing with Murder, and Risking it All.   Good main character, good recurring side characters, easy reading and good stories.. can't ask for much more.