Heads You Lose (1941) by Christianna Brand: A Golden Age Mystery

👒 Grace Morland is a spinster who's in love with Stephen Pendock, her landlord and squire of Pigeonsford village. She likes to paint on his porch, usually quite late in the morning, in the hope of being invited for tea at the cottage. However, Pendock is in love with another, a younger girl called Francesca (Fran) Hart, who, at the moment, is staying at the cottage with her twin sister Venetia Hart, her brother in law, her grandmother, Lady Hart, and a young man called James Nicholl, who 's in love with her.

👒 On that fatal day, after tea, Fran is showing a hat she's just bought. In her jealousy, Grace, after witnessing Pendock having been smitten by Fran, blurted out that she hates the hat, and that "I wouldn't be seen dead in a ditch in a hat like that!" Indeed, that night, Grace is found dead, inside a ditch in Pendock's garden, with decapitated head, and Fran's new hat on it!

👒 The murder investigator is Inspector Cockrill from Scotland Yard - an old friend of Pendock and his guests, whom they usually call Cocky. It is a difficult task to investigate one's own friends, let alone six people who are attached to each other. There's always chance they don't speak the truth to cover the others.

👒 Everyone hopes the murderer is committed by outsiders - Pippi Le May, Grace Morland's cousin who's staying with her perhaps? Or maybe Pendock's butler, who was always away visiting his sick sister when the two murders were committed? There're two murders, then? Yes, they were. But what is the motive? Surely it's done by a lunatic out there? All six people at Pigeonsford cottage hope it was, but Inspector Cockrill is also sure it was committed by one of those six. Which one? Why?

👒 This was my first introduction to Christianna Brand, and I am impressed. Her style reminds me much of Christie's, particularly the psychological aspect. It is a very character-driven story, with a brilliantly plotted crime. Brand meticulously built tension among the closed-circle suspects; we get to know little by little their true personalities, fears, and secrets along every chapter. And I loved the way Brand told us most of what's happening through dialogs and actions, while cleverly keeping only the key to the mystery. There are writers who hide these facts from readers, and they're only become known to us later in the narrative, which I dislike.

👒 All in all, for me, this was a satisfying murder crime. I could guess the murderer, though I was doubting a bit on the middle, with the red herrings and what not. The motive is quite surprising, though I should have seen it coming. Now I can't wait to read more from Brand!

👒 I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Derek Perkins. It's not very pleasant at first, due to the narrator's dragging speech, but after a while I was getting used to it, and focusing more on the story.

Rating: 4,5 / 5

This book counts for British Crime Classics Challenge 2023

For Bingo Card: Closed Circle of Suspects