Dorothy Simpson

When wealthy barrister Vanessa Broxton returns home unexpectedly early she finds her children’s temporary nanny murdered. Inspector Thanet suspects her estranged husband but gradually more suspects emerge.

Inspector Thanet investigates the murder of beautiful but unpleasant Nerine Tarrant, pushed over the second-storey balcony of her manor house to her death.

While Alicia was a schoolgirl a jilted boyfriend had killed himself, and her parents had moved from Kent. When she turns up after twenty years she is welcomed back although nobody knows why she has returned. Within hours Inspector Thanet has to investigate her murder.

When prominent GP, Arnold Pettifer, is found dead of an overdose, Inspector Thanet is immediately suspicious, for Dr Pettifer apparently had everything to live for. The finger of suspicion points at Mrs Pettifer particularly when it emerges that she has a lover.