Care Trap — Lucy Abelson

Strange happenings at Ramsden House care home go unnoticed by the authorities. Set in the beautiful Jurassic coast, this prestigious home started up by a go-ahead professional couple seems the ideal place for star songster, Ursula to place her loved but inconvenient autistic daughter Tosca to develop into adulthood away from her parents' hectic London star-studded lifestyle. To Ursula's chagrin her best friend, Tosca's Godmother Isobel, is worried. Through a chance meeting with a man with a disability, Andrew and Bowie his spaniel dog, she's picked up sinister vibes about Ramsden House. This proves awkward since Ursula relies on Isobel to support her, especially in regard to her handicapped child with whom Isobel has a good relationship.
Tension increases as Isobel becomes involved with Ramsden House. Through her job as a pianist at a grand hotel, she meets the former owner of the Ramsden House. Worried about his daughter Nikki, a long term resident at Ramsden House, placed there so she can live in the house where she grew up, he asks Isobel to befriend her. Seeing this as a chance to find out whether Ramsden House could be the right place for her beloved Goddaughter, Isobel agrees. Her alarm grows when on an outing with Nikki she biffs a prominent local solicitor, also a do-gooder, who has developed some caves into an attractive amenity to be used for good works. Yet Nikki who likes nicknaming people calls him Lord Fuckingdon and refuses to go near the caves. Why does Nikki behave like this and why does she not want to return to Ramsden House? Isobel wonders but is unable to make Ursula understand her fears Ramsden House would be bad for Tosca. For unbeknown to Isobel her fellow Godparent, the handsome urbane Piers, is a friend of both the managers and previous owners of Ramsden House and he is influencing Ursula in the other direction.
Crisis is reached when Isobel, her new friend Andrew, dog Bowie and Nikki, are all caught up when in the care manager's sudden death. Forced to clear her own name, Isobel becomes detective. Is she been wrong about the new friends? Could Nikki's divorced parents and their new partners be involved? Who does Nikki mean when she talks about the "Stick man" ?Using her musical sensitivities and empathy, plus the help of Bowie the super nosed spaniel, she ferrets out the real culprit.