I had something interesting happen to me while reading this book. One of the murder victims is a doctor and is visiting an Alzheimer's patient and his caregiver wife at home not long before he is killed. There is no question that the author of this book not only "gets" dementia, but that she also "gets" what it is like to be a caregiver of a dementia patient. This particular caregiver is at the end of her rope although she is getting what a lot of us would consider to be a great deal of help including a daily aide and in house doctor's visits. She is "gripped always by those two dominant emotions, love and guilt." In fact not long after the doctor's visit, where the caregiver says, "Doctor, I don't think I can go on." the caregiver attempts to kill herself and her husband because she can't get him placed.
The book is interesting, but this bit of the book is literally throw-away background on the doctor.
Dalgleish falls in love and she says YES. (I always read the last chapter first.) But I understand from a review I read that the woman and the relationship don't re-appear for most of the book.
But this is a mystery, not a romance. They do catch their murderer. I believe all of her books do have reasonable, fair endings. She can write a very dark book. Sometimes I like her a lot. Sometimes I don't. And sometimes I buy a book, like this one, and don't read it for 4 years. There is at least one book where I decided I was never reading that one again, but I don't remember the title.
She is in her 80s and she is English. But I wouldn't say that all of them are grim and depressing. I'm not finding this one depressing at all. And I already know that this is a transitional book and that Dalgleish is going to end up with some of his people being promoted out of his crew by the end of the book.