Tuesday's Gone by Nicci French

Thanks to a well read patron, I have found a new author.  This is Nicci French's sixteenth novel, the second starring psychotherapist Freda Klein.  Freda lives in London and has become involved in helping Det. Chief Inspector Karlsson and his team solve murders.  She has a sister-in-law who is the antithesis of herself, a niece and a lover who has just moved too far away.  So she is somewhat at loose ends, when she is asked to give her opinion on a woman found in a dirty, odoriferous apartment with a dead man who has had a finger removed.  The woman makes no sense when questioned, and it is determined that the dead man was just one of her "collections" she had found in the street. 
Through Freda's persistence, it is learned that the dead man was a con man who stole someone else's name and possibly the money of many others.  But who killed him?  This is a dark and brooding novel with a touch of foreboding.  Freda must help her sister-in-law deal with a divorce from her own brother and help her niece deal with her parents neglect.  She takes long walks alone down London streets to help deal with her own turmoil regarding the murder.  Karlsson is dealing with his own personal problems, budget cuts and a staff who don't want help from Freda.
My mistake was in picking this second book before reading the first one, as I now know more about the murder solved in Blue Monday and will not need to read it.  I admire and like Freda.  She is caring enough to help those who were conned, but she finds that she herself can also be manipulated.  Nicci French is the writing team of husband and wife, Nicci Gerard and Sean French.