finished reading

 

This fourth installment of the Vera Stanhope series left me wanting more--so I immediately started the next book.  Vera is a compelling character and in this book, her detecting and leading styles are more on display.  I love that she is a complex and multi-dimensional character.  I had an idea who committed the murder but it was a lucky guess all the way to the twisty ending.  My lingering question is how the title fits.
From the publisher:

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. But a closer inspection reveals ligature marks around the victim's throat - death is never that simple . . . Doing what she does best, Vera pulls her team together and sets them interviewing staff and those connected to the victim, while she and colleague, Sergeant Joe Ashworth, work to find a motive. While Joe struggles to reconcile his home life with the demands made on him by the job; Vera revels being back in charge of an investigation again. Death has never made her feel so alive . . . And when they discover that the victim had worked in social services, and had been involved in a shocking case involving a young child, then it appears obvious that the two are somehow connected. Though things are never as they seem . . .