Banshee - Margaret Millar

The untimely death of the daughter of wealthy Californian landowners slowly destroys the community that loved her in life.

Eight-year-old Princess Annamay Hyatt rules her avocado kingdom benevolently. With the faithful companionship of her attendants--the two enormous family dogs--precocious Annamay spends her days in the playhouse her wealthy parents have built her in the garden, entertaining her friends-dolls, neighbors, hitchhikers who wander through the avocado groves in search of fallen fruit.

Then one summer day, Annamay disappears. When her bones are discovered a few months later, the news of her murder tears her family apart. Her parents' struggling marriage reaches a breaking point; her bereft grandfather contemplates why he is alive; her beloved housekeeper wonders how she could have made the little girl heed her warnings about strangers; the minister who buried her has lost his faith. Everyone in Annamay's circle is blaming themselves and one another for her death--but who was really responsible?