Crime crosses borders, but so does this detective.

After Violet Chase’s sister goes missing in Guatemala, Violet becomes The Nomad Detective: a globetrotting private eye who solves cases around the world while hunting down clues that might reunite her with her lost twin.

As Detective Chase treks across the ancient Andes on the Inca Trail to the depths of the catacombs underneath Paris, she’s aided by a strange skill. She uses her synesthesia — her ability to see auras and use her mixed-up senses to see below the surface of the world — to uncover the true motives of the expats and digital nomads she works for across countries and continents.

Stories in The Nomad Detective: Volume I:

The Case of the Moonlight Jungle Party
The Case of Dead Woman’s Pass
The Case of the Venetian Masquerade
The Case of the Cryptic Catacombs

Prior to reading The Nomad Detective I had never heard of the term digital nomad. I even looked it up to see if such people really exist. Fortunately the author, Amy Suto, herself a digital nomad, includes a full description early on for the benefit of people like me who must apparently be “living under a rock”.

I have to say that for those who are in a position to do so it all sounds rather fun, travelling the world to exotic places to meet for a few weeks in groups to share mutual interests and to party. Of course, good internet connections are a must so that they can find some time to squeeze in their day jobs.

Such a lifestyle provides for excellent settings as our private detective protagonist, Violet Chase, is given a variety of assignments in some of the more attractive places across the world, accompanied by a variety of digital nomads. The reader gets to share a lot of glamour and action.

The synopsis suggests that this is a book of short stories but that is not really true. There are four investigations but they occur in chronological order, some characters appear more than once and there is the ongoing story of Violet’s sister’s disappearance.

Whilst I found the locations and the various characters fascinating I found some of the mysteries on the weak side. That said, each story has a lively climax with Violet finding herself in danger more than once. Although I am not a fan of the paranormal I enjoyed the use of Violet’s synaesthesia which I can understand and her ability to see auras which I don’t think is possible but it gave her an interesting edge.

All in all I found The Nomad Detective an interesting read and I have awarded four and a half stars.

Amy Suto began her career as a Hollywood TV writer before hitting the road and becoming a digital nomad and six-figure freelance writer. Now, she travels the world while ghostwriting memoirs and working on her own creative projects. When she’s not writing, Amy travels the world and works remotely from cafes in Prague — or is misplacing her AirPods in Lisbon.