‘Killing A Unicorn’ by Marjorie Eccles

Published by Constable,
September 2002.
ISBN: 978-1-84119-536-7 

Returning from a stifling hot London, Fran Calvert looks forward with relief to reaching her cool house, Watersplash, an award-winning modernist arrangement of glass, designed by her architect husband Mark, set in a forest clearing below Membery Place, home of the Calvert family for a hundred years. But the cool relaxing evening is denied her, when wondering down to the waterfall she discovers the body of Biba.

Bianca (Biba) Morgan has always carried with her an air of secrecy, ever since Chip the eldest of the three Calvery sons, brought her and her young son Jasie to the family home. Now with her death the family realise how little they knew about her previous life. Initially the family members are sure that the killer must be an outsider. But as Inspector Dave Crouch and Seargeant Kate Coville investigate her death, links between Bianca and the other brothers are revealed. Jonathan Calvert, international cello soloist and his partner Jilly, and Mark whose absence now begins to trouble Fran as she realises that she doesn’t know exactly where her husband is , or how to get in touch with him.

Slowly the cracks beneath the family façade begin to show. Is Chip as adapt at controlling the family finances as he says he is? Is Alyssa, Mrs Calvert senior, really dedicated to the Membery Place gardens, once her pride and joy, are they perhaps now becoming too much, and staunch Jane Arrow, who has always been there as a prop  and considers the Calverts her family. What will happen to Jane if Alyssa accepts her beau Humphrey?

Of more immediate concern is the whereabouts of Biba’s nine-year-old son Jasie, who seems to have disappeared. Did he see the murder? Has be been abducted?

Once again Marjorie Eccles provides her readers with a rich tapestry of family life with all the complexities of a murder investigation that peel away the layers to reveal a killer.  Highly recommended.
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Reviewer: Lizzie Hayes

Marjorie Eccles was born in Yorkshire and spent much of her childhood there and on the Northumbrian coast. The author of thirty-three books and short stories, she is the recipient of the Agatha Christie Short Story Styles Award. Her earlier books featuring police detective Gil Mayo were adapted for the BBC. Her most recent series is set after the Great War and features DI Herbert Reardon. There are five books in the series. She has also written a number of standalone books. She lives in Hertfordshire.