Margaret Moore's daughter killed herself. Margaret is still grieving when two detectives knock on her door, investigating a mysterious tip. Detectives Ryan Kirkpatrick and Kate Hutchinson use words like "homicide" and "suspect," and Margaret doesn't understand why.
When an autopsy reveals the death was indeed a homicide, Margaret defends her innocence as all the clues point to her. Sure, she and her daughter didn't always see eye to eye, but that doesn't mean she killed her own flesh and blood.
Margaret quarrels with her husband, as Ryan becomes embroiled with the family. When Ryan's fiancé ends up dead, Ryan is suspected, but he accuses Margaret. Kate sets out to prove Margaret's guilt and Ryan's innocence. As her investigation connects clues and whispers, each new discovery is more shocking than the last.
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It wasn't supposed to happen like this. CHAPTER 1, MARGARET
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(@WoodhallPress, 4 May 2021, ebook, 220 pages, borrowed from @GlasgowLib via @BorrowBox)
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I enjoyed Cause of Death a lot. Some chapters are told from Margaret's viewpoint and some from her daughter Lena's. You get both sides of the same event and no idea who's telling the truth. Margaret says Lena is crazy, spoilt, childish, abandoning her job to move back home and infringe on their lives. Lena claims her mother is the crazy one and she moved home because her mother begged her to and threatened to kill herself. Who do you believe? Before you even digest this you're plunged into a bizarre mystery trying to figure out who killed Lena and why Ryan and Kate dislike Margaret so much.
