In Place of Fear by Catriona McPherson

Helen is a newly appointed almoner. She is so looking forward to her job but knows that there are many obstacles. She herself comes from a working class background and knows that females working in jobs like this is not something quite acceptable from people amongst her peers. She also knows that those are the very people she has to work with. Thrown out of her home by her mother who thinks this will be the ultimate challenge to get her to change her ways, Helen lucks out when she and her husband Sandy are offered a beautiful home to live in whilst doing her job. She has never lived in such a "posh" house and is determined to make a go of the job, so as not to lose this home as well. Finding a dead body in the shed at the end of the property on the first day she moved in was not the beginning she envisaged and discovering that it is her mentor's daughter (or so she thought as the resemblance was uncanny) was also strange and too much of a coincidence. It set off an enquiry on Helen's part because she felt that there was a conspiracy on the part of everyone around her including her boss to cover up the tracks of who this woman is, and to just assign her to a list of Jane Doe's and forget about it. The story apart from the murders, is very descriptive in the lives of Edinburgh citizens of the 1940s. The class divide so very strong, that that in itself seems to be a story of its own. Good reading. Sent by Hodder & Stoughton for an unbiased review, courtesy of Netgalley.