‘The Case of the Undiscovered Corpse’ by Charlie Cochrane

Published by Williams & Whiting,
4 October 2022.
ISBN: 978-1-91258283-9 (PB)

Charlie Cochrane has written a dozen Cambridge Fellows Mysteries featuring two Cambridge dons – Orlando Coppersmith and Jonty Stewart. She is also the author of two previous novels in the Alasdair and Toby mystery series which follow the investigations of two actors famous for their film roles as Holmes and Watson. In The Case of the Undiscovered Corpse, all four amateur detectives work together to solve a mystery.

Set in the early 1950s, the film studio decides to produce a film featuring the two now elderly dons solving a fictional crime with Alastair and Toby reprising the roles of Orlando and Jonty. In order to faithfully portray the two academics, Alastair and Toby travel to St Bride’s College to make their acquaintance.

As the four men get to know one another better, Jonty reveals that there is a real-life mystery for them all to solve. The four men set out to find out not only how the body of a man lay undiscovered in the Stewart family vaults for decades, but also why no serious attempt was made to investigate the circumstances of how the body came to be in a packing case returned after the Great Exhibition of 1851, and why the inquest ruled the death as accidental on so little evidence.

Needless to say, investigating events that occurred over a century ago proves no easy task for the four men, and tracking down information from a great many sources brings several people under suspicion. Even though the killer is long dead, ultimately the amateur detectives agree on a likely scenario of events and feel they have done justice to the dead man’s memory.

Charlie Cochrane has a distinctive writing style which owes more to PG Wodehouse than to Agatha Christie. With a plethora of characters and a complex plot, The Case of the Undiscovered Corpse will keep you guessing to the end.
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Reviewer: Judith Cranswick
www.judithcranswick.co.uk

Charlie Cochrane couldn't be trusted to do any of her jobs of choice—like managing a rugby team— so she writes. Her favourite genre is gay fiction, predominantly historical romances/mysteries.  A member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association, and International Thriller Writers Inc, Charlie's Cambridge Fellows Series, set in Edwardian England, was instrumental in her being named Author of the Year 2009 by the review site Speak Its Name.

 http://www.charliecochrane.co.uk

Judith Cranswick  was born and brought up in Norwich. Apart from writing, Judith’s great passions are travel and history. Both have influenced her two series of mystery novels. Tour Manager, Fiona Mason takes coach parties throughout Europe, and historian Aunt Jessica is the guest lecturer accompanying tour groups visiting more exotic destinations aided by her nephew Harry. Her published novels also include several award-winning standalone psychological thrillers. She wrote her first novel (now languishing in the back of a drawer somewhere) when her two children were toddlers, but there was little time for writing when she returned to her teaching career. Now retired, she is able to indulge her love of writing and has begun a life of crime! ‘Writers are told to write what they know about, but I can assure you, I've never committed a murder. I'm an ex-convent school headmistress for goodness sake!’ Her most recent book is Peril in Persia.

http://judithcranswick.co.uk/