A Yorkshire Investigation in Not A Friend Of The Family

Richard Platt follows a killer

Not A Friend Of The Family by Stuart Field brings Detective Inspector Richard Platt and his team into a series of killings in a small Yorkshire town. As the investigation develops, Platt becomes convinced that the deaths involve more than their initial appearance suggests.

The second A Friend Of The Family novel establishes that police inquiry alongside another strand. Melanie Foster is confined in Larksford House Clinic and plans to escape. Wrongfully held there, she wants to find her parents and discover who arranged her confinement and why.

Two searches for concealed information

The two situations give readers different routes into a story about hidden identities and long-buried secrets. Platt is trying to understand a present series of murders. Melanie is trying to recover knowledge about her own life and the people responsible for keeping her apart from her family.

For readers interested in Yorkshire crime fiction with psychological suspense, those parallel questions provide a clear starting point. The police have institutional resources, while Melanie begins from confinement and separation from her parents. Their different positions make access to reliable information an issue in both strands. The useful focus is on what each investigator lacks: Platt needs the logic behind the killings, while Melanie needs the truth behind her own confinement.