Cath Staincliffe, the brainchild of BLUE MURDER, now televised, has written a clutch of wonderful mysteries and I think this is one of her best.
Sal Kilkenny is a likeable Private eye in an authentically depicted Manchester, a single parent with small children feeling the pinch close to Christmas, so against her better nature, Sal reluctantly takes on a case investigating the death of an elderly black woman who fell from the top of a multi-story car park. Suicide say the police. Never, says the family. It makes no sense - why would she have been there when she was afraid of heights? The family is right - and a particularly nasty con artist is revealed along the way.
Later a frantically worried mother wants Sal to investigate the reason why her son has turned into a truculent and monosyllabic teenager who won't stay at home - and the answer Sal finds opens up a veritable can of worms.
Staincliffe's triumph is in the ordinariness of people's lives in suburban middle-class Britain. Wonderful stuff. Highly recommended.