Originally published on my blog here in January 2002.In this Fran Varady novel, it is not (for once) the fault of her curiosity that she is caught up in a murder mystery. She is suddenly contacted by a private detective, who has traced her for Fran's mother. She had left Fran's father when Fran was seven and is now dying in a hospice. When Fran visits her, she is told that she has a sister, illegally adopted as a baby by a couple whose own child had died. Fran is asked to trace her too (the illegality has made Fran's mother wary of asking the investigator). But then Fran finds the body of the detective, killed in his own car only yards away from the garage in which she is temporarily living.The Fran Varady series is by this point well established, and Risking it All has the standard features: sympathetic portrayal of a side of London not normally viewed positively by the genre; well drawn young people, again not typical of the genre; a parallel investigation by distrusted police. It is a most enjoyable series, and Risking it All fits into it like a glove.
This is Fran Varady's fourth adventure and she finds herself homeless again. She does however seem to have found some long lost family. This was a really enjoyable read. This book is full of the type of background detail that moves a character from being a description on a page to a fully fledged series character. Without giving the plot away the result of what happens in this book is that Fran is left in a situation which could put her investigatory talents on at least a semi professional basis which is a good thing for an ongoing series. There're only so many dead bodies a character can come across before it gets better from the readers point of view that there is a good reason for it to happen. This feels like a turning point in the series for me, I can see Fran lasting a long time, I hope she does.
