Gift or Theft

Seema is a gardener and a dreamer. She is almost content with her safe life, sharing a flat with her best friend. Until, on a girls' night out, a beguiling older man approaches her. He leads her into a world of wealth and sophistication she's completely unused to.Through him she arrives at a place where both dreams and nightmares come true. Has seduction crossed the line into manipulation or coercion? Worse, is the relationship sliding into a supernatural realm - where a man's obsession with blood will lead to Seema's death?About Crocodiles and Good IntentionsIt's an amazing achievement. Lady Bag excels herself. I was shocked, appalled, mystified, uplifted, tickled pink and hugely entertained. There's no person in all of literature anything like her... Above all, the human spirit (and some doggy spirit...) rises above all the privations and triumphs. Thanks for a terrific read.Peter Lovesey, MWA Grand Master, CWA Diamond Dagger winnerMat Coward (reviewing in The Morning Star): One of current fiction's most striking and exhilarating characters returns for a second outing... Amid the horrors of Lady Bag's new adventures, and inextricable from them, is some gaspingly funny comedy. Cody has command not only of comic dialogue but, which is much harder to pull off, a kind of verbal rendering of visual humour, as she choreographs her characters across the pages with perfect timing. About Lady Bag...made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up for a whole novel... Lady Bag is ... perfectly realized...Sara Paretsky, MWA Grand Master, CWA Diamond Dagger winner