Listed Dead (A Bunch Courtney Investigation) by Jan Edwards #TuesdayBookBlog #NewRelease

Listed Dead now available on Amazon UK

November 1940. The Battle of Britain has ended and the horror of the Blitz is reaching its height when two deaths on the Sussex Downs bring Bunch Courtney and Chief Inspector Wright together once more.

What could possibly link a fatal car crash with the corpse dumped in a derelict shepherd’s hut? The only clue our pair have is the handwritten membership list of a supper club meeting at London’s Café de Paris.

Two people on that list are now dead and the race is on to solve the mystery before any more end up on the mortuary slab.

Listed dead is third in the Bunch Courtney Investigates series.

My Review

You can tell from the title that this volume of investigations by Bunch Courtney and Chief Inspector Wright involves more than one fatality. Not only are people losing their lives in combat or in city air raids but now there is a murderer about, working through a list of rich young people whose supper club meets up at the Café de Paris in London.  When the first deaths occur close to Bunch’s home, she discovers she knows the victims so she will be indispensable, assisting William Wright with his investigations. He doesn’t seem keen for her to follow up leads but that is probably because she is putting herself in great danger.

The lifestyle of these self-centred young people contrasts with the suffering of the military forces and also with the ordinary folk, but it reflects the social structure of the Sussex countryside before the war. Now in 1940 there is another dimension and people like Bunch put many hours of hard work into the war effort.  She juggles care for her Land Girls who run the estate, worry about her sick mother and determination to find the murderer.  Her relationship with William moves between close companionship and detachment reflecting the complex social rules and busy working life they have.

This series gives an interesting picture of the home front during World War Two and the difficulties experienced when people’s homes and land were taken over by the military authorities. We feel the fear and danger of a London air raid and the attempt to continue country life as it had been pre-war.  In Listed Dead, Bunch finds herself in several frightening situations as she gradually works out the intriguing mystery. A most enjoyable read.

Listed Dead on Amazon Uk

My review of  In Her Defence by Jan Edwards