Help the Poor Struggler

I've enjoyed all the Richard Jury/Melrose Plant mysteries I've read - until now. I tried hard to like this one, but just gave up after a while. I'm surprised I finished it. There is a great deal of violence against children - a little girl witnesses the bloody murder of her mother, three more children are killed, and a fourth is threatened with death. The "solution" at the end doesn't really provide a sense of closure, and motive for the crimes is totally absurd. I'm going to give Grimes a pass on this one and say she was just having a bad day.