When Phoebe Threapleton is found dead on a four-poster bed in Bainbridge's department store with six long-stemmed white roses next to her, Inspector Best is baffled...

How does the death in Newcastle of this young woman fit in with the other missing-girl cases in the area, and was Phoebe really as snow-white as her reputation, and the roses, might imply?

Best's initial investigations point him towards the shadowy world of spiritualism, but this proves as difficult to penetrate as the potential motives of the dozens of suspects - from Phoebe's maid to the Bainbridges themselves.

Dead End is the fourth in the Inspector Best series by Joan Lock. The other titles are Dead Image, Dead Born, Dead Fall, Dead Letters, Dead Loss, Dead Centre and Death in Perspective.