 Two books for Serpent's Tail, "Accidents Will Happen" and "Brandenburg Concerto", focused on Renate Fechter, head of a German squad of Eco-police.Then Rathbone created a British private investigator, Chris Shovelin, for the two recent books "Homage" and "As Bad As It Gets" for Allison and Busby.Although diverse and strong characters, none of the four ever seemed likely to take over the oeuvre.