Book excerpt: The first three books in Penny Grubb’s crime series about private investigator, Annie Raymond, have been re-edited and brought together in this fast-moving trilogy, Falling into Crime. - Like False Money (nominated for the John Creasy Crime Dagger) sees fledgling PI Annie Raymond arrive in Hull on the North-East coast of England to take a temporary job in a profession that has been her goal since childhood. Problems start with a boss who hadn’t wanted to hire her, a job she has no idea how to do, and a schoolgirl who is ready to blacken her name to save her own skin. Not only has Annie herself walked into a trap but her inexperience has also led a young girl into mortal danger. If she can’t find her way out of the tangle, it won’t be just her career that is over before it starts. - The Jawbone Gang sees Annie more settled – on the face of it. Her hard work has won her a place in a small agency where she develops her expertise and confidence. But her personal ambitions have stalled and as she plots to get herself back on track, a tangled case full of contradictions lands in her lap and threatens to sour her previously good relations with the local police. She used to be able to leave other people’s problems behind her when she closed the office door. But not this time. - The Doll Makers (winner of an international Crime Writers’ Association Dagger) sees Annie, now a seasoned investigator, working for a successful London-based agency. Not everything is going as well as it should, but it’s the tangle in her family life that’s at the forefront of Annie’s mind as she travels back to Argyll to see her father, unaware that she is stepping into a cataclysm that will change lives. Through it all she clings to her prized professionalism, until faced with a terrible choice; fake the evidence and wreck her prized professionalism or face the consequences to a loved one if she plays straight? Distracted, she takes her eye off the ball and misses vital evidence in a case she thought wasn’t her business. Someone is watching her closely, determined that evidence will never be delivered.