Winter Downs (Bunch Courtney Investigates, Book 1) by Jan Edwards
Release date: June 3, 2017
Subgenre: WWII historical mystery
About Winter Downs:
In January of 1940 a small rural community on the Sussex Downs, already preparing for invasion from across the Channel, finds itself deep in the grip of a snowy landscape, with an ice-cold killer on the loose.
Bunch Courtney stumbles upon the body of Jonathan Frampton in a woodland clearing. Is this a case of suicide, or is it murder? Bunch is determined to discover the truth but can she persuade the dour Chief Inspector Wright to take her seriously?
Winter Downs is first in the Bunch Courtney Investigates series.
Excerpt:
Bunch
slid from the saddle and walked to the trees but stopped just short of them as
she glimpsed a motionless figure seated between the trunks. ‘Hey, you there.’ Bunch edged forward. There
had been many displaced people passing through in recent months, people who
might take refuge in the wood, but it took a strange sort of person who did not
to react to Roger’s noise. ‘Hello? Are you all right? Are you … oh, good
heavens.’ She caught hold of Roger’s
collar and tugged him into a sit as she realised what she was seeing. ‘Dear God,’ she muttered.
A man was slumped in the bowl of a split tree. His hands hung
loosely along thighs, legs stretched out before him. His head lolled forward
obscuring what was left of its features. The rear of his skull had been blown
away and smears of dark pinkish brain matter had spattered across the bark
immediately behind, dotted with shards of bone.
Bunch flexed her fingers against the blood rush tingling through
them and released one deep breath before taking another, and edged forward for
a closer look. Though she could not see his face she knew this was not the
corpse of someone unknown. This body had a name, and she would have known him
anywhere. Calm, she told herself, be calm.
She recognised the Westley Richards near the dead man’s feet and it
left little doubt as to what had caused the massive damage to his skull. She
clapped a hand across her mouth to stop her stomach adding more colour to the
scene. She had seen a few corpses during her brief stint driving BEF staff cars
in France. Many of the corpses had been far more mutilated than this one.
Beside, they had been different. They had lacked identity but this corpse had a
face and a name that Bunch had known all of her life. This body had not been
slaughtered by a mindless steel capsule packed with explosives, dropped from
far above. This corpse had come to be through a deliberate and very personal
act of violence. This was Jonathan Frampton.
She wiped at her eyes and shuddered out another draconic steaming
into the cold air. Pull yourself together. Never waver. That’s the Courtney
way. ‘Oh Jonny,’ she whispered, ‘what in
hell has been going on here?’
Bracing herself for the routine she had last practised with the
First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, Bunch crouched to feel beneath his collar for the
carotid artery though she knew finding a pulse would be highly unlikely. His
flesh was cold in the refrigerating winter wind and unyielding to her touch,
but not yet fully stiffened in rigor. The red splattering all around was
dulling to brown, telling her that the blood had ceased flowing several hours ago.
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About Jan Edwards:
Jan Edwards is a Sussex-born writer now living in the West
Midlands with her husband and obligatory cats. She was a Master
Locksmith for 20 years but also tried her hand at bookselling,
microfiche photography, livery stable work, motorcycle sales and market
gardening. She is a practising Reiki Master. She won a Winchester Slim
Volume prize and her short fiction can be found in crime, horror and
fantasy anthologies in UK, US and Europe; including The Mammoth Book of
Dracula and The Mammoth Book of Moriarty. Jan edits anthologies for The
Alchemy Press and Fox Spirit Press, and has written for Dr Who spin-offs
with Reel Time Pictures.
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