Under My Skin

October 30, 1995
At Castle Dean health spa in Berkshire, someone is out for revenge. Carp have been boiled in the spa's Jacuzzi, maggots mixed into the yogurt and acid blended into the massage cream. Initially reluctant to take the case, British PI Hannah Wolfe (last seen in Fatlands) steels herself to 200-a-day beauty treatments while she searches for both saboteur and motive. Hannah's quick resolution of the case convinces spa owner Olivia Marchant that Hannah should look into a series of threatening notes received by her husband, a renowned "aesthetic surgeon." While cross-checking Castle Dean clients with Dr. Marchant's patient list, Hannah is introduced to a world where body parts are enlarged, reduced and sculpted and self-image is created on the surgeon's table. But this pursuit of the ideal often leads to disappointment, which in turn, inspires lawsuits, suicide and, finally, murder. Hannah, with a self-described "attitude problem," is a witty, and competent PI, a little like Kinsey Milhone, but very much her own woman.