KILL MY DARLING, by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

4/series starring Detective Inspector Bill Slider and his team. Set in central London's Shepherd's Bush area, Slider investigates the disappearance of a young woman who walked out of her house one evening and vanished into thin air. Slider and his crew know young women often vanish for a day or two, then turn up with a perfectly reasonable explanation. But this time, beautiful Melanie Hunter is found, dead of a blow to the head, in a London area park. Click below for more...
Her mother is bereft but curiously detached; her stepfather is enraged, thinking the murder will reflect on his teaching position; the victim's stepsister (thirteen going on forty) knows all the answers; her friends are grief-stricken but clueless. As is her boyfriend, a not-up-to-scratch estate agent. As Slider and his crew dig into everyone's back story, the victim's unhappy past comes to the fore, but not even super-copper Slider can figure it out...until the last minute. It's a 5, full of sometimes-hilarious dialogue, solid police slogging, and an ingenious plot I should've figured out quicker (or at all).
Find the author at www.cynthiaharrodeagles.com
Find more no-spoiler book reviews in all genres at ww.nuts4books.com