Death of a Partner — Janet Neel

Detective Chief Inspector John McLeish of New Scotland Yard tried to look sharp while his commander briefed him on a missing person. He'd just worked thirty-six hours, topped off by a blazing row with Francesca Wilson, who was racing to New York to bail out one of her errant pop-star brothers. Most missing-person cases didn't end in murder--but Special Branch had reason enough to steer this one to homicide. The young woman in question, Angela Morgan, was the fiancee of a Treasury Minister. And, by the time McLeish found out that she was also attractive, ambitious, wealthy, and not without enemies, her bludgeoned body had turned up in a Cambridge field.

Aided by a clever and strikingly beautiful new colleague, Sergeant Catherine Crane, McLeish sorted through the suspects. Angela's sister, overshadowed by her vibrant younger sibling--and the main beneficiary of her will--merited attention, as did the bitter, unstable niece of Angela's former boss, who'd bequeathed much of his substantial legacy to Angela. The Treasury Minister, a rising political star with stern views about his bride-to-be's career, could not be dismissed. And Angela's business partner at a financially strapped lobbying firm clearly did not want to lose her talents, her £100,000 loan, or, as his jealous wife intimated, her affections. In this complex case, only one thing was certain: Catherine Crane was becoming increasingly vital to the investigation--and to McLeish. And then Francesca Wilson came back....