Deadly Plot (Bunch Courtney Investigation, Book 5) by Jan Edwards
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About Deadly Plot:
A rash of thefts in Wyncombe’s Victory Gardens has already raised questions, but then a corpse is scattered across the plot by scavenging foxes and the stakes are raised to the limits.
Who was Nario Costa and what train of events brought him to rest beneath the sprouts and parsnips in a sleepy Sussex village?
Bunch’s latest case, with roots in war torn Italy, brings the deadlier under belly of war to her very doorstep.
Excerpt:
“Then tell me what there is.” She pulled the plaid scarf tied over her short dark hair a little further across her face, against the smell.
Letham sniffed and wrinkled his nose. “I suppose he is a little ripe. It takes a while for a body to decompose when it’s buried but it will, given enough time. Probably why the foxes dug this chap out now, of course.”
“Do you often get foxes digging chaps up?” Bunch asked.
“If they are hungry enough and usually when the body is closer to the surface. This one was approximately four feet down, which is about the maximum depth our little wild canids can detect decay. The top eighteen inches or so had been loosened by the cultivation and that allowed the odours to creep out. The plot holder was obviously not a fan of that double digging the gardening chap on the BBC has been advising, or it would have come to light much sooner.” He paused, waiting to see if anyone commented, and smiled. “The nub of which is that while it may not be the sexton’s full six feet in the graveyard it’s quite deep enough and doubtless why it took a while to detect him.”
“You can be sure it’s male?” Wright asked.
“Perfectly. Decomposition is in fact not that advanced. Male, aged between twenty and forty.” He grimaced. “I’ll try to narrow it down further when I’ve cleaned him up. Approximately five foot eight inches in height. Dark hair. Unidentified military styled clothing – extensively damaged. Old Reynard may have ripped it apart in his efforts to get at the flesh but I imagine all insignia was removed at time of death, so there’s no means of identification that we’ve found yet. Our little vulpes-vulpes had a high old time over night and the crows had their share when the sun came up, so our chap is a bit of a mess. When I get him on my slab I’ll know more. As luck would have it, he landed face down in solid clay when he was rolled into his grave, which stopped the crows making too many inroads. They go for the eyes, you know. Eye sockets are the easiest way to get at the brains.” He cocked his head at Bunch and smiled an apology. “Too much? Sorry. My point is that we may still have what passes for an identifiable face.”
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About Jan Edwards:
Jan Edwards is the UK author of the Bunch Courtney Investigations - the WW2 crime series, which gained her an ‘Arnold Bennett Book Prize’. She has 50+ short stories in horror, fantasy, mainstream and crime anthologies, including: Mammoth Book of Folk Horror, Criminal Shorts, The Book of Extraordinary New Sherlock Holmes Stories: and volumes of the MX Books of New Sherlock Holmes Stories series She is a member of the Crime Writers Association and member and past chair of the British Fantasy Society. Two titles due out in 2024 - Of Sand and Tides urban/cosmic horror and Deadly Plot:Bunch Courtney Investigations #5.
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