Alix Harris came to the world of private investigation late in life – nine years ago she turned 40 and decided to ditch the corporate world and retrain as a private investigator. Her inspiration? Miss Marple! She used to love watching Agatha Christie films on cold winter evenings with her daughter.
When she started out, she bought a bike and her daughter bought her a tweed cycling helmet to stick with the Marple theme! But she quickly discovered that the life of a private detective often falls into seedy territory – with adulterers her prime suspects.
And with a survey by YouGov revealing that one in five British adults admit to having had an extra-marital affair, it’s no wonder Alix is so busy!
“My first case was an adultery one but I didn’t cover myself in glory. I was inexperienced and trailing him far too closely. We ended up in a ludicrous situation where he was walking round, with me following him, then he changed direction and I did too. He was clearly on to me. It was like a Benny Hill sketch.
“But I learnt from that very quickly. I completely left the case for two weeks and then went back to it, keeping my distance. A week after that I caught him with the other woman – tailing him from a distance and seeing him walk into a pub with her, hand in hand. I took pictures with a long lens camera and showed them to his wife.

“It was a relief for her – she knew that something was up, he was following the common script of an adulterer, gaslighting her and saying she was paranoid. I’ve never had a client come to me suspecting adultery who has been wrong – they’ve been right in 100% of cases. So if your gut is telling you something is up to the extent you’re planning on hiring someone like me – at the cost of £100 an hour – I’m afraid to tell you you’re probably right. The split is 50/50 with men and women.
“I remember one man coming to me and we had a preliminary meeting. He told me all the signs – they were the typical ones, ‘working’ late, losing interest in sex and causing rows so she would leave the house to ‘calm down’ – in reality going to meet her  lover. Those signs are the usual ones. But I did once have a woman whose husband had displayed none of those signs. But she’d been to her his work Christmas party and seen him reach into a female colleague’s breast pocket on her denim jacket and help himself to one of her cigarettes. It was such an intimate gesture that she was sure something was going on. Sadly she was right.

“The average time it takes to catch someone committing adultery is four days. It’s easiest if someone has a 9 to 5 office job and a regular routine. They will usually meet up with their lover straight from work so I tail them in my car if they’re driving or use my bike. I’ve spent many an evening sitting in a bar or waiting in a hotel lobby. It always surprises me how cavalier people are. I never understand why they don’t go up to a hotel room in separate lifts so there’s at least an element of deniability  – or why they make public displays of affection. But it makes my life much easier. They become complacent and forget to be careful.
“Sometimes the cases are more complicated – on those occasions I think outside the box. I remember a wife being convinced her husband was playing away, bringing his mistress to the marital home while she was at work. So I created a poster of a missing cat – using photos of my own cat. Then I went knocking on doors on his street, knocked on his door and said I’d been told my cat had been seen in his garden and asked if I could go through to have a look. Sure enough there was his mistress in the kitchen making herself a cup of tea. I discreetly took a photo through the open garden door.

“Another time I bought a dog lead and knocked on a potential adulterer’s door late at night and asked if he’d seen ‘my lost dog’. I don’t even have a dog! But sure enough he answered the door and called upstairs to the other woman to ask if she’d seen it. That was proof enough for his ‘real’ girlfriend to see the light and kick him into touch.
“I’m fortunate in that I’ve never had an angry adulterer confront me for finding them out. But I did have one experience which was alarming. A man came to me and asked me to track down his fiancée, saying he just wanted to get back the engagement ring as it was a family heirloom. Something felt off with him, so I turned down the case – I always rely on my instincts. I was later contacted by the police after they went through his phone records. It turned out he wanted to find her so he could hire a hitman to shoot her. Fortunately, he was caught as the hitman he tried to hire was actually an undercover policeman. That woman definitely had a lucky escape!

“I love my work – which might sound odd as I’m constantly delivering bad news. But I don’t think of it like that. People who are cheated on are often relieved just to know the truth after being constantly lied to and told they’re going mad. I feel I’m giving them the knowledge to help them move on.”