Pearlhanger

I don't much like working for clients. It means that I have to follow someone else's instructions, and I've never been too good at that. When those instructions came from a spirit guide at a seance, I just had to laugh. Well, you would, wouldn't you?
The rather attractive young woman whose husband the spook had said I should help her to fine took me on a quest that turned into a trail of lucrative antiques deals, spoiled only when the police came plodding in and I found myself up to my neck in forgeries and murders. Situation normal, really.
Then the killer turned his attentions to me, just as the spirit had said he would, and I certainly wasn't laughing an more.

Surely now established as an enduring sleuth (and snogger). The Times

Jonathan Gash is the pen name of John Grant, who also wrote under the name of Graham Gaunt. Born in 1933 in Bolton, Lancashire, Grant trained as a doctor and worked as both a GP and a pathologist. He also served in the Royal Army Medical Corps, where he rose to the rank of Major, and was head of bacteriology at the University of London's School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. His first Lovejoy novel, The Judas Pair, won the Crime Writers' Association's prestigious John Creasey award in 1977. Grant lives in Colchester, Essex.