The Inspector Cockrill Mysteries #2
"Hands down one of the best formal detective stories ever written."— Kirkus Reviews, STARRED review
This Golden Age masterclass of red herrings and tricky twists, first published in 1944, features a tense and claustrophobic investigation with a close-knit cast of suspects.
"You have to reach for the greatest of the Great Names (Agatha Christie, John Dickson Carr, Ellery Queen) to find Christianna Brand's rivals in the subtleties of the trade." —Anthony Boucher in The New York Times
It is 1942, and struggling up the hill to the new Kent military hospital Heron's Park, postman Joseph Higgins is soon to deliver seven letters of acceptance for roles at the infirmary. He has no idea that the sender of one of the letters will be the cause of his demise in just one year's time.
When Higgins returns to Heron's Park with injuries from a bombing raid in 1943, his inexplicable death by asphyxiation in the operating theatre casts four nurses and three doctors under suspicion, and a second death in quick succession invites the presence of the irascible—yet uncommonly shrewd—Inspector Cockrill to the hospital. As an air raid detains the inspector for the night, the stage is set for a tense and claustrophobic investigation with a close-knit cast of suspects.
Release Date: December 7, 1946
Release Time: 91 minutes
Director: Sidney Gilliat
Cast:
Sally Gray as Nurse "Freddie" Linley
Trevor Howard as Dr. Barnes
Rosamund John as Nurse Esther Sanson
Alastair Sim as Inspector Cockrill
Leo Genn as Mr. Eden
Judy Campbell as Sister Bates
Megs Jenkins as Nurse Woods
Moore Marriott as Joseph Higgins
Henry Edwards as Mr. Purdy
Ronald Adam as Dr. White
George Woodbridge as Detective Sergeant Hendricks
Frank Ling as Rescue Worker
Wendy Thompson as Sister Carter
John Rae as The Porter
Christianna Brand (December 17, 1907 - March 11, 1988) was a crime writer and children's author. Brand also wrote under the pseudonyms Mary Ann Ashe, Annabel Jones, Mary Roland, and China Thomson.
She was born Mary Christianna Milne in 1907 in Malaya and spent her early years in India. She had a number of different occupations, including model, dancer, shop assistant and governess.
Her first novel, Death in High Heels, was written while Brand was working as a salesgirl. In 1941, one of her best-loved characters, Inspector Cockrill of the Kent County Police, made his debut in the book Heads You Lose. The character would go on to appear in seven of her novels. Green for Danger is Brand’s most famous novel. The whodunit, set in a World War 2 hospital, was adapted for film by Eagle-Lion Films in 1946, starring Alastair Sim as the Inspector. She dropped the series in the late 1950s and concentrated on various genres as well as short stories. She was nominated three times for Edgar Awards: for the short stories "Poison in the Cup" (EQMM, Feb. 1969) and "Twist for Twist" (EQMM, May 1967) and for a nonfiction work about a Scottish murder case, Heaven Knows Who (1960). She is the author of the children's series Nurse Matilda, which Emma Thompson adapted to film as Nanny McPhee (2005).
Green for Danger #2
KOBO / iTUNES / iTUNES AUDIO / WIKI
The Inspector Cockrill Mysteries Series
Film
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