The Big Payoff — Janice Law

Set at the time of the North Sea oil boom, The Big Payoff marks the debut of Anna Peters, the witty, cynical character Booklist called "among the most complex, fully drawn female leads in crime fiction" and whom the New York Times lauded for her "sweetly unscrupulous deals".In The Big Payoff, Peters is employed in the research department of New World Oil Company, a position that suits this now reformed blackmailer. Happy with her lover, Harry, Anna has abandoned the seductive intellectual and psychological game of blackmail for the straight and narrow.But mysterious deaths among New World's British contacts convince Anna that something is wrong in the executive suite. Worse, she is soon blackmailed by a British secret service agent who's following the same trail.Anna reluctantly bugs her boss's phone and copies company files, but when her British contact turns up dead, Anna finds that sheand Harryare in mortal danger. Her old skills come in handy as she tries to keep ahead of ruthless killers, first in Washington, D.C. and then in the north of Scotland.The Big Payoff has been issued in British, Danish and Japanese editions and was a selection of the Detective Book Club. It was an Edgar Award nominee.Look for more of Janice Law's Anna Peters mysteries to become available in the near future.