Fran Varady novels by Ann Granger

Ann Granger is a former diplomat who began to write historical novels. She lived in many countries and then returned to the UK. She has written several detective novels, using different characters, but one set that I particularly like is the Fran Varady novels. These are light detective fiction about an amateur detective called Fran Varady. Fran's family are Hungarian but have emigrated to London, and she was brought up in a one parent family. Her mother left her father when she was small and when he and her grandmother died, she was left homeless. This gives Fran access to the seedy side of London life. Unlike some detectives, she has very little in the way of position or worldly wealth. In the first novel, she is living in a squat and trying to support herself, when one of the other homeless girls kills herself. Fran investigates and finds that it was a murder. She gets odd jobs as a waitress or in a shop, but she wants to become an actress and tries to get into that world. However, her natural quick wit and sympathy for people leads her into investigating crimes and problems, and she meets her mother, before her mother dies. She likes living in London and is a feisty cheerful character. She has a good friend, Ganesh, whose family run various shops, and she works at times for small detective agencies...... One of her best novels is set in the world of people trafficking, where she investigates the disappearance of a young boy from Eastern Europe, who is killed by a gang who transport people into the UK and find them low paid jobs and force them to work for years to pay off their debt. Fran has been taking part in an amateur production of the Hound of the Baskervilles, when she comes across this case, and in spite of the serious nature of the crime, there is a good deal of humour about the rehearsals and preparation for the show.