"The Darkest Evening" by Ann Cleeves

An audio book.

Lorna, who's been ill, has a baby, Thomas, who's about a year old.

It's been snowing. While driving her landrover in Northumberland, Vera, a detective inspector, finds an abandoned car with a baby in it. She takes the baby, leaving a note. The nearest house happens to belong to a rich relative of Vera's. Vera's not seen them for years, not since her father (the black sheep of the family) died. Juliette's holding a little party there. She and actor Mark have been married 3 years, childless. He wants to convert the rundown stately home into a theatre, and it seeking money. Dorothy, with a Cambridge degree and a toddler, is the housekeeper. She went to school with Juliette. Vera finds that the car is owned by 67 year old Constance Brown (ex-teacher). Her neighbour Lorna, a single mother, sometimes borrows her car.

Joe, a family man, is one of the policemen.

A dead body is found outside - Laura's.

They interview Lorna's mother while the father is out. Pretty Lorna had been bullied at school and got anorexia. She spent time in a clinic. She became pregnant. The mother thinks that her husband loved Lorna deeply, but the police wonder about the father (though they don't interview him?). The mother had seen the baby, but the father hadn't. The couple agree to look after the baby.

Holly, part of the police team, thinks through the suspicions that readers might be harbouring - that a woman might have murdered.

Mark has a womanising reputation. Juliette wants a child. Mark jobshares with Sophie. Mark lies to the police about what he did early one day in Newcastle.

Lorna liked painting. One of her several paintings of a cottage was called "The darkest evening". Josh (a friend of Mark) was in her art group. He and Lorna were friends, non-sexual.

Constance suddenly disappears. Lorna's clinic bills were paid by Juliette's father, Crispin. Lorna's mother said that she had a serious affair with Juliette's father, and Lorna could have been his child. But Juliette says that Crispin died before Lorna became pregnant.

On the day of her death, Lorna phoned various helpers saying that she was slipping back - something to do with Thomas's father.

Juliette knows that her mother knows that her father wanted Lorna to be looked after, though it wasn't in the will.

Vera finds that the cottage is in the estate's woods.

Bloodtests showed that Crispin wasn't Lorna's father.

Thomas is taken. Vera finds him in the cottage. A man with a shotgun takes here away - Josh's father. He confesses that he was Thomas's father, and that he'd planned to start a new life with Lorna. But when Lorna became stronger, less vulnerable, she changed her kind and became friends with Josh. Holly saves Vera. Vera later explains the case to Joe, and promises to stay friends with her rich relatives. Vera sees ways to help solve some people's problems that she'd learnt about during the invesigation.