A Late Phoenix — Catherine Aird

DECADES AFTER WORLD WAR II, AN EXCAVATION AT A BOMB SITE YIELDS THE SKELETON OF A MURDERED WOMAN

Young Dr. Latimer has no sooner opened his surgery on Lamb Lane in Berebury than he is called upon to examine a dead body. Actually a skeleton, it was discovered during the excavation of the bomb site across the street, now in the process of redevelopment, and it belonged to a young woman, who was apparently trapped in a cellar during the June 1941 bombing which leveled the houses on the site. But when Detective Inspector C.D. Sloan of the Berebury C.I.D. arrives on the scene, he discovers that a bullet was the actual cause of death and that the young woman was several months pregnant at the time. Nobody has a clue as to who she might have been, and with his wide-eyed assistant, Detective Constable Crosby, at his side, Sloan patiently interviews everyone associated with the site, sorting through their memories of the bombings and blackouts of World War II to find out who the woman was and who might have had reason to kill her. First published in 1970, it's the authors fifth book and the fourth to feature her durable Inspector Sloan.