Dead and gone Book

A really well-done British mystery series with believable recurring characters who solve the mysteries in believable ways with plenty of hard work. In this case, Thanet is called in when a local QC's wife goes missing in the middle of a pool party -- and is found dead in the well behind the house the next morning. The same woman had "lost" her daughter 4 years earlier when the girl eloped with the gardener. Are the two incidents related? No one thinks so, but Thanet is determined to find out, if only to get additional insight into the victim. There are a lot of solid suspects with varying motives and it is hard to know which way to lean -- and then the answer comes at last. Thanet complains that when the fingerprint is found which clinches the whole thing, his assistant Lineham doesn't tell him right away -- but Thanet/Simpson then keeps the reader waiting another chapter before revealing whose it is. Throughout the book, Thanet is preoccupied with his daughter who lies in the hospital being treated for preeclampsia and toxemia while awaiting the birth of her first child, so the whole book has an edge to it as you wait for shoe after shoe after shoe to drop. The conclusion of the entire book was satisfying without it being all neatly parceled up in a sugar-coating and reminded me again why I love this series.