Sun 18 Jun 2023
Archived Mystery Review: CHRISTIANNA BRAND – Heads You Lose.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[3] Comments
CHRISTIANNA BRAND – Heads You Lose. Inspector Cockrill #1. John Lane/Bodley Head, UK, hardcover, 1941. Dodd Mead, US, hardcover, 1942. Reprint editions include Bantam, paperback July 1988. July 1 13.SO>
As you might deduce from the title, murder by decapitation, three times over. Not exactly what you’d call a “cozy” mystery, although all the trappings are there: a small English village, the squire’s manor, only six suspects. Inspector Cockrill investigates.
Patterned after John Dickson Carr, although there’s no locked room — the body found in the snow with no footprint$ around has an easy explanation. But with events bordering the bizarre, and with every word and scene full of extra meaning, it’s Carr a11 right.
June 18th, 2023 at 10:03 pm
With Brand and Cockie you are almost knee deep in Carrian territory before you recognize it. Cockerill is almost as eccentric as a Carr sleuth in his droll insistence on normality when nothing going on around him is actually normal, or anything like it.
June 19th, 2023 at 8:52 am
An earlier Mystery*File review of this book: https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?m=200903&paged=3
June 23rd, 2023 at 5:13 pm
Earlier and much longer with lots more detail. Here’s a more direct link:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=1054
Thanks, Bill!