Candles for the Dead — Frank Smith

When bank worker Beth Smallwood is found battered to death, Chief Inspector Neil Paget's investigation reveals a number of likely suspects. Just hours before she died, Beth told her son, Lenny, that she would no longer embezzle funds from the bank to finance his drug habit. A neighbour heard Lenny go mad and strike her. Had he returned to finish what he'd started? On the same day, Beth's boss, Arthur Gresham, had offered her a promotion, but it came with a high price. Had he panicked when he thought Beth had gone to the police and silenced her for good? What about Harry Beecham, made redundant as a result of Beth's new position? Why was he hammering on Beth's door only minutes before her death? And who had telephoned the police to say there had been an accident in the church?. "With no shortage of suspects but little hard evidence, Paget and his team have their work cut out for them. Meanwhile Paget's personal life is equally complicated as he copes with the anniversary of his wife's death, and discovers that old flame Dr Andrea MacMillan has returned.