The Wyndham Case By Jill Paton Walsh

This is the first Imogen Quy novel by Jill Paton Walsh. Imogen is a nurse at a college in Cambridge, a single woman in her 30s, who has had some disappointments in her life. She was a medical student, but gave up her studies to go to the US with her boyfriend, who then left her. She returned to the UK, and trained as a nurse while looking after her parents, who then both died, and left her alone. She is a bit lonely but is a warm cheerful young woman who enjoys her job. She rents out rooms in her house, and is friendly with the Master of St Agatha's college and his wife, Lady Buckmote, who is kind to her. Imogen is horrified when a young student, Philip, is discovered dead in one of the libraries. It seems like an accident but soon they realise that he was killed. Imogen finds that some of the students talk to her while they wont talk to the police and she gets involved in the investigation. It emerges that Philip is from a modest lower middle class background and was given rooms to share with an upper crust boy, Jack, who is callous and insensitive. THen Imogen meets a young trainee hairdresser, Tracy, who works at a salon nearby and finds that she was Philip's secret girlfriend. He felt lonely in college as he didn't fit in and was irritated by the students who didn't care much about studying. He and Tracy kept their affair secret because he was afraid of being teased even more by his fellow students. Tracy tells Imogen that Philip had come to see her one evening when Jack was having a party and he knew he would not get any sleep. He said that he had to leave to do some work, and left her... Then another student is killed and Jack disappears.