Trial & Retribution VIII: Blue Eiderdown (1)

Angela Dutton falls from the eleventh-floor balcony of her block of flats, and the first question is the oldest one in the book: did she jump, or was she pushed? The autopsy settles it into murder territory. She was struck on the back of the head before she went over. Angela worked as a prostitute at her boyfriend's private members' sex club, so there are clients and colleagues to work through, none of them likely to be forthcoming.

Then the case grows roots. Connor discovers that Angela's mother was Susan Delray, a seventies TV star murdered twelve years earlier and found wrapped in blue eiderdown. That killing was never solved. So now there are two questions stacked on top of each other: did Angela find her mother's killer, or did one of her three high-paying clients do for her? And when it emerges that a cabinet minister, a judge and a senior police officer were all involved with Susan back in the day, the enquiry stops being awkward and starts being dangerous.

Connor isn't pleased about Walker being asked to keep an eye on the case, either — he heads the investigation into both deaths while she does the legwork, and their friction is as reliable as ever. Dorian Lough's DS Dave Satchell and Sarah Ozeke's DC Lisa West work alongside them, with William Chubb's Chief Supt Martin Wilkes, Richard Durden's Dr John Foster, Colin Salmon as Colin Thorpe and Bill Thomas as Norman Gladstone in support.

Lynda La Plante wrote it, Paul Unwin directed, and Kathryn Sumner carries a strange double burden, playing both mother and daughter across twelve years of story.

The title refers to what Susan was wrapped in, and it's a good one: domestic, soft, wrong. First nights are often scene-setting, but this one has real momentum, because every answer opens onto somebody powerful who would rather the nineties stayed buried.