A Murder of No Account

Eve Duncan Mystery #1

by Julia Underwood

London, 1940.

A city is at war, and under siege.

When Eve Duncan stumbles upon the body of a dead girl, she is shocked - but no one else seems very concerned.

With the imminent threat of invasion by the Germans, and bombing by the Luftwaffe, no one has the time to concern themselves with the death of a Polish girl.

But Eve is determined to find out what happened.

As all the young men have left to fight, there is a shortage of staff at the police station, and they happily let Eve take charge of the case.

Who is the mysterious girl?

Why was she killed?

Has her murder got something to do with the War Effort?

Or was it just A Murder of No Account?

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Historical, Amazon, Historical Fiction, Crime, World War II

97 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 4, 2013

About the author

The daughter of an itinerant army intelligence officer, I studied Physiology at University and did Medical Research before starting a family. As well as living with my parents in Germany and Austria I have travelled widely, living in Jamaica for two years and France for six. I have run a pub, two restaurants and for many years I had a soft-furnishing business.
At school I took liberties with the classics to adapt into plays for my classmates. More recently my work has been published in The Lady, Cat magazine and craft publications. I’ve won several local short story competitions and was a runner up in the national Wrekin Writers’ competition in 2010 and 2011 and shortlisted in a Writing Magazine competition in 2011 and runner-up in their children’s poetry competition this year. I was second as well as a runner up in a Flash fiction competition last year. I like to try a bit of everything!

Reviews

[Carrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Murder of No Account by Julia Underwood is the first book of the Eve Duncan Mystery series. This one is a historical mystery that takes place in London in 1940. A young woman's body is found and most simply ignore her and write her off but Eve is determined to get justice. Being a novella the thing this really lacked was depth, the author brought the era to life and did an OK job with the mystery but it all could have used more to it.

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[Lisaj · Rating 2 out of 5]

as I read this book I kept hearing a Brief Encounter style voice in my head, perhaps because Eve is a rather smug individual. The book itself is short and based on the premise that the police would ask a witness to investigate a murder. The ending when it mercifully arrives is a not unexpected as the culprit may has well been wearing a neon s sign from the first moment the appear on the page.

[Bonnye Reed]

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[Patricia Gulley · Rating 3 out of 5]

A female postal worker doing redacting of letters is 'loaned' to the police to investigate a murder because the station doesn't have enough men. She's young, and that's why I found it hard to believe there wasn't more made of the no longer used clothes, or why no one had a thought about how to help the baker.

[Sally J Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Murder of No Account

A good mystery. Written in the time of war it moved slowly throughout the investigation. The investigator was not a normal police officer, but did a good job of finding the murderer and about his other war time activities. An interesting story about happenings in the war.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

1940 London and when Eve Duncan comes across a body the police having no time to investigate ask her to start the enquiries.
A quick read which doesn't make for a complicated mystery or too much character development. But still a nice story to start the series off.

[Becky Ballinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great historic mystery

I truly enjoy this book. It takes place at the beginning of the blitz. The description of the bombs falling and the fear is palatable. I highly recommend this book.

[Mrs J · Rating 3 out of 5]

Simplistic plot

Set in a London awaiting the Blitz, Eve finds herself tasked with solving a murder! With only curiosity and indignation this two-dimensional character sets off on her ‘jolly caper’.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

A rather quick read.

[Tony Hisgett · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice little novella which I read very quickly in one sitting. The story is a bit simplistic and the murderer is pretty obvious quite early in the book, but overall it was a decent, if short, read.

[Annette · Rating 3 out of 5]

The setting is WWII London.

Eve works for the Censor Department of the Post office. She does not find her work interesting and when the chance comes along for her to help the Police Department, she is happy to oblige.

A young woman has been murdered and left in an alley on a rainy evening. And no one seems too interested in finding what happened.

Eve wants to know what happened. And she follows the clues from a hostel for Polish refugees to a bakery and back again.

She is being accompanied by her good friend Charlie. She and Charlie were among the first people to find the dead body. Also at the very edge of the story is her boyfriend Pete, and her parents. No one is much a part of the story other than Eve.

This is a hard book to review.

I liked Eve and found her to be interesting. Everyone else seems to be only a peripheral character. Surprisingly, Eve seems to easily forget information she is collecting for the police. Found that a little disconcerting.

The atmosphere is wonderful. The reader gets a feeling for London at the time before the blitz and just as the bombing is getting started.

I think the mystery could have been more difficult to solve. I also would have liked to get a little more character development for everyone in the story.

I hope the next book in the series is a better fit for this reader.

[Linda Cole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good

Nice mystery with compassion for the victim the main character was likeable and smart setting was a big part of the story but I enjoyed reading this book