The Short-Order Detective
August 7, 2024
Hi.
This has not been a quiet year. Thank heavens for the distraction of the Olympics to take our minds off the ills of the world. It's a short period of grace when we can celebrate the beauty and speed of young people from all over the world, doing their best and achieving greatness – even when they come last.
I suppose, having recently had hip surgery, it's the gymnasts and the sprinters who make me tear up. Suppleness and speed are, at the moment, out of reach here. And sometimes, truth to tell, my admiration is overcome by envy.
In the middle of this display of triumph, the UK is once again plagued by the opposite – the fear and violence demonstrated by anti-immigrationists against the poor and dispossessed. Racism, islamophobia and anti-Semitism, to name just a few, have crawled like maggots from a rotting corpse to make our streets ugly and dangerous.
Into this uncomfortable mixture of grace and disgrace I've added my two-pence-worth: a new novel, called The Short-Order Detective. It's about a woman, sacked by London's Metropolitan Police, who is making a meagre living working in a greasy-spoon café. She's trying to build up a reputation as a private detective by taking whatever small cases the cops don't have time for while flipping burgers and slapping together sandwiches.
Will she succeed? I wish I knew.
xx Liza