Innocent Graves by Peter Robinson

 

A sixteen year old girl has been found murdered in the local church cemetery.  She is the daughter of a wealthy family and had been walking home from her private school.  As DCI Banks and his team work the case, they must first determine if this was a random victim or if she was targeted specifically.  The body was posed as if it was a sexual attack but there was no evidence of interference.  

Soon all the evidence starts to point in one direction.  A local schoolteacher, who taught at the girl's school, seems to be the culprit.  He was in the vicinity of the crime and some of his hair was found on the victim.  A former girlfriend says that he attacked her and that he had perversions.  Banks arrests him and he is sent to trial.  Did they get the right killer?

This is the eighth book in the series.  Banks has his doubts but a new inspector is determined to make his mark and he is the one who uncovered the teacher's presence in the area.  Banks is an old school inspector and he is being challenged by younger men who have gone to universities and done training courses Banks didn't have access to.  But Banks has a natural ability to untangle the twisted skeins of a case and find the perpetrator.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.