The Crooked Wreath aka Suddenly at His Residence (1946) by Christianna Brand

🖼️ The Crooked Wreath is book #3 of Inspector Cockrill series. It was originally published in the UK by different title: Suddenly at His Residence. I have ranted before on how publishers annoyingly change titles when publishing cross country. For this book, however, I prefer the US title: The Crooked Wreath. I happened to listen to the audiobook version with the same title. 'Suddenly at His Residence' seems to reveal too much of the book. By reading the title, I immediately guessed the victim-to-be; it must be a wealthy man. The crime is perhaps within the family, and the motive would be inheritance. And so it is what the book is about!

🖼️ Sir Richard Marsh is a wealthy man; the owner of Swanswater estate, but he's turned a bitter man. When his wife, Serafita, was still alive, he had cheated on her. After her death, Sir Richard married Bella, his mistress. But, perhaps out of guilt, he made in his house a shrine for Serafita, complete with her portrait, and a wreath. Her ballet shoes were also kept around the house (she was a ballerina). Every anniversary of her death, he made his family gather around this shrine to do a kind of memorial ceremony. And so, long after her death, Serafita is still 'resided' in her house.

🖼️ This year his grandchildren attend the memorial. There are Philip, with his wife Ellen, Claire (who is having an affair with Philip), and Peta. Those three are his grandchildren by his deceased wife. Also attend the service are Edward, his grandson by Bella; and Sir Richard's young lawyer, Stephen, who is in love with Peta. Annoyed by these young people's lack of respect, Sir Richard threatened to disinherit them.

🖼️ On that fatal night Sir Richard spent the night at the lodge, where, he spitefully stated, he would make a new will. The next morning, the family found him dead of poisoning, while the will was nowhere to be found. No one could have entered the lodge that night because the gravel path was freshly rolled by the gardener. And when his body was first found, the path was still pristine. How, then, the murder could have been done?

🖼️ Inspector Cockrill is investigating the case, however, his role in the story was passive - too passive for a detective story. The deduction was mostly done by the suspects. They alternately come up with solutions of who must have been the murderer, and how it must have been done. It means that we get to suspect each of the family member along the story, and each of them is quite plausible.

🖼️ This story reminds me of Heads You Lose; closed-circle of suspect (within the family); Cockrill's passive involvement and his good relationship with the family; and the psychological suspense in the end. This one's ending is unsettling, though. Cockrill relies too much on the suspects, I think it would've been better had the story been without detective. And the dramatic, theatrical ending is rather unreal for me. It could be good for a Hollywood movie, but rather unsuited for the tone of the whole story.

🖼️ To conclude, it is an intriguing locked-room mystery, brilliantly written, but with unsettling ending, and lack of detective role.

Rating: 3,5 / 5

This book counts for: British Crime Classics Challenge 2023

For Bingo Card: Locked Room Mystery 

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