Death of Jezebel

Pity poor Scotland Yard Inspector Charlesworth. Years ago Isabel Drew drove a young man to suicide, picking up the nickname “Jezebel” in the process. Two other young people were involved, and all three have gotten threatening letters. When one of them dies in an apparently impossible way, Charlesworth gets the case, but he’s dogged by a small but formidable policeman from the sticks — a hayseed who’s infuriatingly always right.

Curmudgeonly Inspector Cockrill bitterly resents being plucked from his beloved Kent to go to a police conference in London. Does he take his resentment out on Inspector Charlesworth? Probably. But Cockrill resents Charlesworth reminding everyone of Cockrill’s one mishap of a case (recounted in show more Christianna Brand’s most famous novel, Green for Danger), so he doesn’t mind toying with Charlesworth on that count.

As always, Brand has a surprise ending and lots of fun along way. And if you get to read it on audio, all the better! show less

This classic locked-room mystery takes place just after WW II. During a pageant involving people dressed as knights riding horses saluting a lady in a tower, the lady falls to her death which hundreds of people are watching. There are only a handful of suspects and they are all named in the beginning of the story. This who-dunnit is therefore mostly a how did he do it. What makes the story entertaining is how the detectives form a conclusion that is immediately discarded as a result of a few small facts. Also, suspicion keeps moving from character to character.

I really enjoyed [b:Green for Danger|1024750|Green for Danger|Christianna Brand|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1180313110s/1024750.jpg|1010989], with its ingenious plotting, WWII military hospital setting, and engaging characters, so I thought I'd give this one a try. Setting and characterization are less strong here, so this one stands or falls on the strength of the puzzle. While the crime itself, involving an "impossible" onstage strangling, a cardboard tower, and eleven knights in coats-of-armor, is an unusual one, the solution is unsatisfying. There's a one-in-a-million chance the murderer's scheme --which depends upon his being able to predict the behavior of an animal-- could have worked according to plan. Also, things bog down show more considerably in the middle through a series of false confessions.

On the plus side, the detective, Inspector Cockrill or "Cockie," is much funnier in this 1948 novel than he had been in Green for Danger of 1944; I wonder how much of the change in his character is due to the influence of Alistair Sim's amusing interpretation of the role in the 1946 film adaptation of the earlier novel. (That movie, available from the Criterion Collection, is tons of fun, by the way.) show less

Extremely clever adaptation of the locked room mystery. Inspector Cockrill has no official standing this time as he is visiting London but that doesn't prevent him from figuring out this very puzzling crime.

This is supposed to be Brand's most famous book. Left me a little cold, both in its own right and as compared to the (few) others of hers that have read.

Yes fiendishly clever in the undertaking of the killing, but it seems overly complicated and difficult to explain to the reader.

Not a fan

Big Ship

1 July 2024

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