Asking for Trouble (Paragon Softcover Large Print Books) [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Ann Granger (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1999 | Series: Paragon Softcover Large Print Books

A crime novel from the author of A FINE PLACE FOR DEATH and A TOUCH OF MORTALITY, in which a young girl discovers that there is more than meets the eye to the death of a housemate who is found hanging in the bedroom of the squat from which they were soon to be evicted.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Ann Granger has worked in British embassies in various parts of the world. She met her husband, who was also working for the British Embassy, in Prague and together they received postings to places as far apart as Munich and Lusaka. They are now permanently based in Oxfordshire. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From AudioFile

As usual, amateur sleuth Fran Varady is broke, largely unemployed, and teetering on the edge of homelessness. As usual, everyone except her best friend, Ganesh, is skeptical about her abilities--this time to discover who killed her former housemate, Terry, found hanging from the ceiling. And as usual in Ann Granger's enjoyable British mystery series, Fran triumphs. Kim Hicks has read several of the Fran Varady series, to excellent reviews. This audiobook is not an exception. Hicks IS Fran Varady in the same way that Alec Guiness IS George Smiley. She also delivers a well-paced reading in which the other characters come alive. A convincing, entertaining performance. R.E.K. © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 360 pages
• Publisher: Chivers Large print (Chivers, Windsor, Paragon & C (March 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0754020932
• ISBN-13: 978-0754020936
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,724,704 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Don't miss this one, July 29, 2000

By 

Helen - See all my reviews

This review is from: Asking for Trouble (Paperback)

This book displays an unusual tentativeness for an author with a large number of previously published crime novels. Nevertheless, it is a refreshing addition to the genre. The main protagonist, Fran, is a very young homeless girl who is as naive as she is unpretentious. She is the best characterisation of all the characters in this book - the remainder being somewhat two dimensional. Don't give up on this book though as Fran is a delightful character and one well worth following through the other parts of this series.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I listened to the unabridged audiocassettes of this book, April 1, 2005

By 

M. C. Crammer (Decatur, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Asking for Trouble (Paperback)

and thoroughly enjoyed it. I had been a big fan of the other series by this author and was disappointed not to encounter my favorite duo of detectives, but I think I may like Fran Varady (the "detective" in this series) even better. She's young, lives on the edge, has guts and intelligence, and doesn't back down.

In this story, Fran is living in a "squat" (she's one of a group of illegal tenants in a building scheduled to be torn down -- they just pulled off some boards and moved in, because there's a severe shortage of housing in London and they can't afford housing). The local housing council is on the verge of evicting them when one of the squatters is found dead -- it's made to look like an accident, but clearly there's signs of a struggle. The police suspect that the killer is one of the other squatters (for no good reason, except these people don't have the power to avoid getting railroaded, or so the police think, I guess). Fran manages to finally convince them that none of them did it, but she sets out to find the killer. She didn't particularly like the victim, but no-one deserved what she got. She ends up going to the victim's family home in the country, where she is truly a duck out of water.

I highly recommend this book. Perhaps the reading of the book was particularly well done, and that's why I liked it, but I'm going to read more in the series.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fran Varady - worth a listen, August 12, 2004

By 

S. Saunders (Rocky Mountains USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Asking for Trouble (Audio Cassette)

I've become a fan of Ann Granger's Fran Varady series of novels. I particularly enjoy listening to Kim Hicks reading them. Fran's a young woman who's struggling against homelessness, alone in the world with no family. She's a survivor, though, with a wry sense of humor and a prickly independence. This isn't the best of the books, but worth your listening time if you want to take a little mental trip to London - not the tourist's London but the London of people like Fran. I recommend it.