Absence of Angels — Janie Bolitho

Although Owen Kerslake has as good as confessed to the killing of his lover, Dee Mercer, Detective Chief Superintendent Ian Roper has a gut instinct that the case is not as straightforward as it seems. Dee Mercer's daughter, Kelly had left home three years previously and, as the police talk to the Mercers' neighbours and Kelly's old classmates, they build up a surprising picture of the girl. Roper and his colleagues feel the key to the murder might lie in Kelly's disappearance and the more they question Owen Kerslake's guilt. Then one of Kelly's old friends is reported missing.