Unidentified Woman

by Mignon G. Eberhart

To young and lovely Victoria Steane there seemed no pattern to the murders. yet one by one they took place — a man found drowned, a girl floating in the river, a woman strangled in the undergrowth. And these were just the beginning.

Just one thing was all too terrifyingly clear to Victoria. Step by step the savage murderer was moving closer and closer to her.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction

328 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1943

About the author

Mignon Good (1899-1996) was born in Lincoln, Nebraska. She studied at Nebraska Wesleyan University from 1917 to 1920. In 1923 she married Alanson C. Eberhart, a civil engineer. After working as a freelance journalist, she decided to become a full-time writer. In 1929 her first crime novel was published featuring 'Sarah Keate', a nurse and 'Lance O'Leary', a police detective. This couple appeared in another four novels. In the Forties, she and her husband divorced. She married John Hazen Perry in 1946 but two years later she divorced him and remarried her first husband. Over the next forty years she wrote a novel nearly every year. In 1971 she won the Grand Master award from the Mystery Writers of America. She also wrote many short stories featuring banker/amateur sleuth James Wickwire (who could be considered a precursor to Emma Lathen's John Putnam Thatcher) and mystery writer/amateur sleuth Susan Dare.

Reviews

[Yibbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was pleasantly surprised by this mystery. It was a fun read. Even though I did guess rather early on who done it, she still led me down a few false trails.
The story starts out very abruptly. Actually, we join the action months after the initial event. Eberhart gives us a very brief introduction to the characters and a backstory and then plunges us into a whirl of murder, disappearances, suspicions, suspense, and accusations. So who killed in the past and why have they started killing again just on the eve of the wedding? Could it be the wealthy heiress, the aunt, one of the cousins, a servant?
Because of when it was written there is even the fear of spies. I’ve found that some of the mysteries written during that time didn’t age well because of the fear of saboteurs, but she handled it very well. It didn’t seem out of place at all. Instead, it added just that much more confusion and terror to the whole story.
Overall I really enjoyed this mystery and will be looking for more of her books. She created some very vivid characters that really helped the mystery along with their interactions and conversations.
There some instances of ‘mild’ swearing and several instances of socially accepted substitutes for curse words. Those were mostly used by the youngest of the characters.

[Regan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow wow wow....How have I missed this author all these years? One blurb called her the American Agatha Christie. She is nothing like Christie -- just as good, but very different. Not a word is wasted but she writes with such style, in such a way, that you know exactly what each piece of furniture, each element in nature, looks and feels like. Some great twists and turns in this story. She's definitely on my list of authors to go back and read her entire backlist.

[Sabrina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though it was quiet easy to guess the murderer, this was still a very exciting mystery imo. The beginning was a little slow and I could have very much done without the romantic sideplots but I still very much enjoyed the story.

[Elsie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love serendipity. I must have picked this 1943 mystery up at a used bookstore. I finally got around to reading it. What a gem! Mignon Eberhart was a very well known mystery writer in the mid to late 20th century. She wrote more mysteries than any other American mystery writer. She was our "Agatha Christie." I'd never heard of her.

The story is set at the home of a wealthy family who have just experienced the trauma of a suicide within their midst that led to false accusations of murder and bruised feelings all around. The reader feels as if she has just walked in on the second act of a play. Before long there is a disappearance and a real murder. The rest of the book concerns the investigation of these events. The author does a wonderful job of revealing each character's history which tempts the reader to point the finger at each one in turn.

I'm still chagrined that as a lifelong mystery reader I had missed her for all these years. I will read more of her books.

[Denise Loveless · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading books published in the 40’s that I purchased at a used book sale years ago.

[Trish · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well that took far too much effort to read for a <200pg book. Plus, I figured out whodunnit within pages of the culprit turning up.

[Tucker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yet another mystery in which I cannot figure out what everyone is arguing about.