A Case to Answer — Margaret Yorke

Jerry and Peter have been successfully conning vulnerable householders until Jerry decides to go straight and gets a job in a chip shop. There he meets Imogene, pregnant and temporarily living with her step-grandmother, Charlotte Frost, in Granbury. He agrees to tackle Charlotte's neglected garden, but when his mother's car is stolen his decision to retire from a life of crime is doubted. Then a woman's body is found in the river near Granbury. At first the police believe it to be accident or suicide, but one detective is sure it is murder, especially when the prime suspect cannot supply an alibi for the night the victim disappeared.