Manhattan's art scene in the 1980s is full of backstabbers, but Miss Melville regards this as needlessly messy. She prefers to use a gun-and she uses it well, in this darkly funny series perfect for fans of Richard Osman's Thursday Murder Club. Life is full of surprises. Susan Melville, for example, was raised to marry well, but when the Melville millions went South, she turned to...let's call it freelance problem-solving in order to pay the rent. Bluntly? She became a hired killer. Surprise!

And now, surprisingly, her little watercolors have found an audience. Miss Melville can join the world of museums and artistes, and bid adieu to the grubby realm of hitmen and...hitwomen. Hitpeople? A shining, law-abiding life will be hers, she is certain-until another artist drops dead, the police get the story wrong, and Miss Melville is forced, yet again, to step in and tidy things up.