I’d give this 4 stars except for my difficulty in keeping track of all the characters, exacerbated by a tendency to switch between Christian and Surnames. Otherwise, Brody’s a comfortable read. Well drawn characters and settings, both in place and era. The plot is complex enough to satisfy, right to the resolution. ( )

Everett Runcie, banker and brother of a baron, is found dead in a hotel bed, strangled. Unfortunately the woman he was with was not his wife and she has disappeared. Kate is investigating why the wife of a client keeps disappearing for a day or two at a time. Are the two cases linked?

A good installment in this series with an unexpected but satisfying resolution of the cases and in Kate's personal life. ( )

When a minor aristocrat is found dead in a hotel room, rumours start to fly: he was known to be in the process of divorcing his rich American wife, had a very high-profile lifelong love affair with another young woman, and had been seen at the hotel in the company of both yet a third young woman and a known American mobster. Thus, the possibilities of murder are endless, and when the woman seen with him at the hotel goes missing, the mystery only deepens. Kate Shackleton is asked to find the young woman, while her former lover, Scotland Yard’s Chief Inspector Charles, wants her to help him sort out the murder - without, of course, stepping on his toes while doing so….This is the fourth Kate Shackleton mystery, and as with the previous books, it’s replete with details of 1920s English life. For example, divorce laws were loosened (somewhat) at that time such that a woman could divorce her husband if he’s been unfaithful, and there sprang up a sort of cottage industry of “unknown” women who acted as the “co-respondent” with the honourable man so that the divorce could be relatively quiet, with less stigma attached to the wronged wife. The characters here are all quite believable, and I especially liked the various tossed off attitudes of the largely Protestant aristocrats toward the Catholic population, particularly the Irish Catholic; those tensions are still somewhat in evidence today, let alone 100 years ago! I don’t think it’s necessary to have read the previous novels in this series to enjoy this one, although I always prefer to read any series in order from the beginning because the tales are that much richer when the reader knows the relationships involved; recommended. ( )

Kate Shackleton & Sykes are hired to keep an eye on a previous "client"....

Although she is no longer shoplifting Deidre Fitzwilliam is exhibiting suspicious behavior, disappearing off & on and being seen in the company of other men, all seeking incontestable divorces from their wives....

The last man she was seen with, was found dead in the hotel room they shared, but as she had been passed out, she remembered nothing.

The mistress of the dead man was shot in the arm, the photographer helping Kate is found hanged, and Deidre goes missing after her mother dies....

Kate is also at odds with the Chief Inspector of Scotland Yard she once dated as he attempts to shut her out of the case...

Very satisfying and tied up nicely at the end. ( )

http://www.girllostinabook.com/2015/04/review-woman-unknown-by-frances-brody.htm... ( )