Private eye Grace Smith is not having a good day. Her latest client - a penniless, pregnant 17-year-old - wants her to prove her mother is innocent of murder; the most chauvinistic cop in town is squatting in her spare room; and she has somehow been lumbered with a hysterical parrot that loves singing songs from the shows.

Can things get any worse? Of course they can. Nothing ever runs smoothly for Liz Evans's accident-prone sleuth. In this, the fifth in the Grace Smith series, our plucky but unlucky heroine is shot at, skewered by a tree branch and held hostage in a loo by a deadly dog.

Daft and deft by turns, Sick As A Parrot is a fun thriller about a feisty female PI who isn't afraid to ruffle a few feathers.

She's no VI Warshawski, but Grace Smith is good company in a bad situation.

Updated: 08:31 Saturday, July 30, 2005