Quirky crime novel set in Streatham gets 5 stars

South London, 2005, and Nikki Elliot has been spending the best part of a year living on the dole and developing a taste for daytime television. Finding her last boss’s dead body had put her off having a job. But the government is cracking down on the unemployed, and Nikki’s personal adviser at the Jobcentre has given her an ultimatum: go for the job at Action in Caring, a small charity, or lose your benefits. Things start to go badly wrong from Nikki’s first day when her new boss dies at the management committee meeting. Was it an accident, or had someone spiked the sandwiches? And just how true were the rumours that the finance manager had an unhealthy liking for young boys? Or were the only things being fiddled by Gordon Smedley Action in Caring’s accounts? When more people die, Nikki realises that something big is happening. And when she’s beaten over the head outside the Bedford pub in Balham, she starts to feel scared. Working with Suresh Shah, former flatmate and now South London Press journalist, and with the help of a cast of characters including Felicity Balmforth, witchy yoga teacher; Dora Popp, who sees more than people think; and Maria de Souza, visionary leader of Young Futures , the story reaches its climax on Streatham Common as Nikki unravels the mystery and unmasks the person responsible for death, corruption, and dodgy dealings in south London.  Available for Kindle readers now, and in alternative formats in the new year.