Dead on Arrival

Thanet's beat remains the town of Sturrenden, his milieu the upper middle classes, his sleuthing style understated and shrewdly intuitive -- when he isn't beset by such family problems as his teenage daughter's posh new boyfriend. The inspector finds a diversion of sorts at a local fete hosted by the prominent Fairleigh family. But then death strikes: someone uses a pillow to suffocate the clan's tough old matriarch only days after she suffers a stroke. Suspects include the immediate family -- a son in politics, a daughter-in-law mourning her baby's death, a timid sister -- and the usual collection of odd servants beloved by British crime writers.