Silent Voices (Vera Stanhope #4) by Ann Cleeves; 2019. Softcover.

Silent Voices is the fourth book in Ann Cleeves' Vera Stanhope series – which is now a major ITV detective drama starring Brenda Blethyn, Vera.

When DI Vera Stanhope finds the body of a woman in the sauna room of her local gym, she wonders briefly if, for once in her life, she's uncovered a simple death from natural causes. Then Vera spots ligature marks around the victim's throat – death is never that simple . . .

Vera revels being back in charge of an investigation again, working with Sergeant Joe Ashworth to find a motive. While Joe struggles to reconcile his home life with the demands of the case, death has never made Vera feel so alive. The duo investigates the victim's past and discovers a shocking case, involving a young child. Probing the secretive community, they try to stop a killer in the present who can't seem to let go of the past . . .