When Bunch Courtney’s father holds an exclusive party at their London townhouse in Thurloe Square, no one expects to find a dead body in the alleyway not long after Winston Churchill and his wife have left. It’s the redoubtable Bunch who finds the body; a young Wren named Davina Lorrimer has been murdered with a single blow to the heart.
Though still recovering from her last adventure and leaning on a stick, Bunch’s sense of justice propels her to investigate the murder. But everyone seems bent on thwarting her, from her kindly father to her occasional beau Henry Marsham. Bunch finds herself caught between competing loyalties when her father’s secret service agents want to keep the police at arms length for reasons of national security. Her old friend inspector Wright returns but Bunch is ordered to tell him as little as possible. Will they be able to resume their old friendship or will resentment keep them apart?
Frustrated at every turn, Bunch moves between the family estate at Perringham, now relinquished by the American military who had commandeered it, and the sanctuary of the London townhouse. She is under constant pressure from her family, especially her father, to go on holiday and give up her investigation. Neither he nor her formidable grandmother Beatrice quite trust Bunch since she was gravely injured in her last investigation. Her father appoints an estate manager at Perringham and her grandmother has a new nurse and companion after the old one mysteriously disappears. It soon becomes clear to Bunch that her family want the new nurse to look after her too, something she is determined to avoid.
The plot thickens when Bunch discovers that certain valuable items have disappeared from the secretaire in her late mother’s bedroom at the Thurloe Square. One is a reticule made from silver and the other a mysterious Fabergé egg. Bunch enlists the help of her London neighbour Admiral Newcombe, whose niece has also gone missing since she accompanied him to the fatal party. Or is she really his niece?
There are many mysteries to perplex Bunch as she continues her investigation in the teeth of official and family opposition. Who broke into her mother’s bedroom and stole her belongings while leaving certain valuable items behind? And why was Wren Lorrimer murdered?
As Bunch continues to pursue these questions, she finds herself in increasing danger. She cannot be sure who to trust. Her old friend and lover Henry Marsham seems to have become remote and bossy. Bunch is up against the conventions and genuine concern of her family together with attitudes to women even as in wartime they take on more roles once exclusive to men. With divided loyalties, Bunch will have to choose between obeying her father and following his orders and her own profound regard for justice. Will she choose to follow Edward Courtney’s instructions, or will she find herself drawn back into the aegis of Inspector Wright, now working in London for the special branch?
In A Party to Murder, Jan Edwards has pulled off a tour de force. The story is gripping right from the start, and also highly entertaining in its characterization of Bunch, her family and friends. The villains in this story are truly chilling and Bunch faces dangers as great as any she has yet encountered. She also has to deal with the injuries left by her past adventures which make her both more vulnerable and more determined than ever to finish the job. This is a good read and Edwards keeps the reader guessing right up to the end about the true nature of the mystery and the motive for the murder. This reader for one was kept intrigued and unable to put down the book. Bunch Courtney is a likable heroine, flawed but intensely brave and personable. The other characters are well drawn, from her father Edward Courtney, a senior advisor to Churchill, to the taciturn Inspector Wright and a host of other minor characters such as the crime Queen Lily Kendall and her female gang. One to enjoy.
You can buy A Party to Murder here. The book launches on 23rd April.
About Jan Edwards
Jan Edwards is a UK author with several novels and many short stories in horror, fantasy, mainstream and crime fiction, including the Mammoth Book of Folk Horror as well as various volumes of the MX Books of New Sherlock Holmes Stories. Jan is an editor with the award-winning Alchemy Press (includes The Alchemy Press Books of Horror series). Jan was awarded the Arnold Bennett Book Prize for Winter Downs, the first in her ww2 crime series The Bunch Courtney Investigations.
Winner of the Arnold Bennett Book Prize; Karl Edward Wagner award; Winchester Slim Volume award (for Sussex Tales). Short listed for both the British Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction and Best Collection.
To read more about Jan Edwards, go to https://janedwardsblog.wordpress.com/
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