Death in the Berwyns by JJ Sullivan

John Lynch writing as JJ Sullivan says:

I’d been thinking for ages about a new series. I knew who I wanted at the centre of it: a woman who could match any man, whether for brain or for brawn. And, slowly, Claire Tanner took shape in my head.

It isn’t something she talks about, but Claire was abducted in her teens. It’s to make sure that nothing like that ever happens to her again that she takes up Brazilian jujitsu. She also boxes, for fitness and because she enjoys it—but the gym owner says from now on he will only match her in the ring with men. Her female opponents have complained that she hits too hard.

She started her working life as an investigative journalist, but an unfortunate mistake cost her the job. What could make more sense than becoming a private investigator? And she develops a reputation that means anyone in or around Chester who wants a private eye comes to Claire first.

This first book takes her a long way from the north-west of England. In fact, to British Columbia, where the woman she is being paid to protect has been dumped on the northern shore of Vancouver Island and is being hunted by wolves. Claire doesn’t like the woman one little bit (and nor will you), but a fee is a fee and a job is a job.