High-Wired

Fine Line #1

by Andrea Frazer

High-Wired is the first volume in The Fine Line series, which sees acclaimed crime author Andrea Frazer move into the world of police procedurals.

The novel introduces us to DI Olivia Hardy, a firm but fair cop, and her new partner, DS Lauren Groves. Their wildly different backgrounds and styles of policing cause problems at first, but the two women bond over a shared love of music, and over the pressures of juggling complicated family lives with the horrors of the job. Both women try to reconcile their problematic family lives – Olivia’s issues with her teenage children, Lauren’s collapsing marriage – with the demands of a job that requires heart and soul. Their beat is a decaying coastal town in the south of England – a shadow of its Victorian glory – and criminals are lurking even where you’d least expect them. As Olivia and Lauren investigate a harrowing murder, the events of the case spiral – and so do the issues in their personal lives …

300 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 5, 2015

About the author

An ex-member of Mensa (bored!),Andrea Frazer is married, with four grown-up children, and lives in the Dordogne with her husband Tony and their seven cats. She has wanted to write since she first began to read at the age of five, but has been a little busy raising a family and working as a lecturer in Greek (she has a Fellowship Diploma in Greek), and teaching music.
Apart from writing, Andrea continues to teach music, and now also teaches French to ex-pats.
Her interests include playing several instruments (but not all at the same time!), reading, and choral singing (she sings with two choirs in a nearby town). In her spare time, she breathes!

Reviews

[J · Rating 2 out of 5]

Perhaps a score of 2 is a bit unfair but I cant bring myself to go to a three.

I really like most of Andrea Frazer's characters with, of course, the wonderful Lady Amanda Lightly at the top of the list.

But not this one. Pompous, not very clever and fairly one dimensional central characters who seem to have received their police training by watching TV crime shows. Drug linked murders with a brutality that added nothing to the thin storyline pursued.

Another reviewer mentioned that they lost count of the numbers of bottles of wine consumed by these two in only a few days and I would add the number of elicit prescription sleeping tablets without a hint of irony between this and tut tutting the criminal drug trade.

Insite, humility and humor might have turned this into an interesting (though very black) comedy.

[Nancy Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Compared to other writings

I had a difficult time liking these women but by the end I was able to see Andrea's style start emerging.I will read the next book as she was a favorite author and created the best in Falconer files.

[June Smith · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was the most miserable effort I have read this year at least I got to the end I was so bored I was counting how many bottles of wine they got through

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting new mystery series from Ms. Frazer. Excellent depiction of characters, showing the private as well as professional lives of two female police officers. Lots of action and suspense with some humour thrown in.
I'm very much looking forward to the continuing adventures of "Lauren and Hardy."

[Rev Lynda Mead · Rating 1 out of 5]

Huge Disappointment

I am a great fan of the Falconer Books, so I eagerly bought this first one in a new series by Andrea Frazer, I tried but gave up before the end. Stereotype characters in stereotype situations, and silly pun names. Very disappointed.