WOLF TO THE SLAUGHTER
From the Inspector Wexford series, volume 3
by Ruth Rendell
A definitely superior British quasi-procedural story in which three members of the police force attempt to find mod painter Margolis' sister Ann who seems to have disappeared while an anonymous letter claims she has been murdered. Via a car dealer, a char, one of her lovers, a shopgirl, etc. they finally trace the lighter she had carried to a man who has died, and all of this is handled with a good deal of internalized tension and any number of surprises. It is also by no means as exclusively feminine as her earlier books.