Busy Body — Raymond Flynn

Someone disliked Eddathorpe's distinguished industrialist Sir Jeremy Blatt
enough to bash him on the head, pack him into a lorry and despatch him on
a North Sea ferry...

Detective Chief Inspector Robert Graham has too many suspects: several
wives, one of them Sir Jeremy's own; the exploited employees of his frozen-
chicken empire; a son who despised him; even a policeman...And that is
without taking into account the animal rights protests and the unwanted help
from Ron Hacker, Graham's favourite ex-detective superintendent, newly
installed as Blatt's security chief.

Graham picks his way through a sorry story of cold-blooded murder, warm
blooded love and unchecked greed to uncover a solution that surprises even
him.