Alison Wonderland by Helen Smith
Having given up a boring nine-to-five job to become a private detective, Alison finds that most of her working life is spent spying on unfaithful husbands. In offices. From nine to five. Until Project Brown Dog. From somewhere on the coast of England, rumours arise of the sinister genetic crossbreeding of unsuspecting animal species. Alison is assigned to investigate the truth. With her friend Taron - a woman with a hundred-candle smile and a unique, if ambitious, mission to improve the world - she travels from London to Weymouth and back, rocked by a shocking discovery. Part adventure story, part dissertation on anything and everything from Japanese knotweed and psychic postmen to why women with great bodies wear the chunkiest bikinis, Alison Wonderland is a kaleidoscope of acute observations and comic virtuosity.