Helen Jacey

Jailbird Detective Helen Jacey

1945. Holloway Prison, London. Jemima Day has spent the best years of her life banged up in Block F for female spies. Except Jemima never was a spy, just a naïve gangster's moll, betrayed by former fiancé spiv Billy. She is all the more devastated when jail mate Australian spy Lena, her only friend inside, dies. Victory is almost here and Lena didn't make it.

On the eve of VE Day, Jemima is sent on probation; three months on a land army farm. But she's had enough of any form of internment and makes a run for it. She wants payback from Billy, and a way out of England for good. In South London, Billy's got problems of his own and Jemima witnesses a brutal execution by the mob.

With the Secret Services and now the mob on her tail, Jemima flees to LA. Under a new identity, she settles into the swanky Miracle Mile Hotel for career girls with the plan to make up for her lost youth. When new friend June falls prey to a sexual predator who poses as a photographer, Jemima goes against her loner instincts to punish the creep.

But former jailbirds should lie low. Jemima is picked up by vice detective Randall Lauder. He quickly unravels the truth and offers Jemima a stark choice: face the hangman back in England or become his undercover errand girl. Jemima becomes Elvira Slate, the last in a long line of fake identities.

When one of Lauder's shady missions connects to the deaths of three innocent people and a missing person, the law turns a blind eye. Suspecting foul play, Elvira decides to find out the truth. Aided by female sleuth mentor Beatty Falaise, she uncovers a mysterious web of deception and greed. Elvira must crack the crime before anyone else is killed. She must save herself when her past finally catches up with her.

Jailbird turns Private Eye. Can she get away with it?