English policewoman Charmian Daniels copes with personal problems while investigating a child's disappearance in Jennie Melville's A Death in the Family. The case implicates Charmian in the deaths of a young boy and an infant whose bodies are found near a foundling hospital in a field once called the Baby Drop. With its thin plot and lowering tone, this book may not be the best place for new readers to pick up the series.