Cat and Mouse

by Christianna Brand

Synopsis:

Girls Together magazine agony-aunt 'Mrs Friendly-wise', aka Katinka Jones, finds herself at a loose end in Swansea, and decides to pay a surprise visit to one of the magazine's regular correspondents, 'Amista'. But reaching the address a strange house perched atop a mountain which matches all of the descriptions in the letters nobody has even heard of 'Amista'. As Katinka begins to fall for the dashing master of the house, Carleon, more weird mysteries emerge and the plucky Detective Inspector Chucky joins the search for the truth in this self-consciously lurid mystery-melodrama; a rollicking cavalcade of Brand's signature twists and turns.

The first of Brand’s non-Cockrill stories to join the Crime Classics, and the sixth Brand novel in total, a series bestseller. A playful and experimental novel in which Brand sets out to combine Gothic melodrama with her signature style of mystery complete with astonishing twists and bombshell clues hiding in plain sight.

I’m not a great lover of Christianna Brand’s work, generally, and I’ve liked her books less as I’ve read more of them, somehow. So perhaps it’s not too surprising that I actively loathed the latest reissue of her work by the British Library Crime Classics series, Cat and Mouse.

As far as I can tell, it’s less intended as one of her straight-out mystery novels, and more written as a parody of dramatic gothic mysteries; it reminds me a little of Ethel Lina White’s work. And it’s excruciatingly awful to read. The main character is humiliated at every turn, and makes multiple wild accusations while acting — sorry, but this is the best word I can come up with — hysterically, there’s a romance that makes absolutely no sense… arrghhh, it just drove me nuts. I hated it.

The one good thing I can say for it is that it did genuinely feel like it was set in Wales, and evoked that perfectly.

Rating: 1/5

Tour de Force

by Christianna Brand

Synopsis:

Inspector Cockrill’s dull vacation is jolted by a Mediterranean murder. From the moment he steps on the plane, Inspector Cockrill loathes his fellow travelers. They are typical tour group bores: the dullards of England whom he had hoped to escape by going to Italy. He gives up on the trip immediately, burying his nose in a mystery novel to ensure that no one tries to become his friend. But not long after the group makes landfall at the craggy isle of San Juan el Pirata, a murder demands his attention. The body of a woman is found laid out carefully on her bed, blood pooled around her and fingers wrapped around the dagger that took her life. The corrupt local police force, impatient to find a killer, names Cockrill chief suspect. To escape the Italian hangman, the detective must find out who would go on vacation to kill a stranger.

Christianna Brand’s Tour de Force was her final novel featuring Inspector Cockrill, and it features Cockie on an actual holiday! Naturally, it’s going to turn into a busman’s holiday, and you know that from the start: you’re just left to guess at exactly how the tensions are going to rupture and who exactly will die. It’s a fairly typical collection of characters: someone’s in love with someone’s husband, someone’s a fortune hunter, someone’s an old spinster, someone’s a detective…

I think my problem with Christianna Brand is that there’s something so deeply cynical about her writing. I always compare her with E.C.R. Lorac, where I think sometimes Lorac tends the other way too much (but that’s much more pleasant to read). It feels like everyone in Brand’s work has ulterior motives, and she doesn’t seem to have liked other women very much. Leo Rodd’s a cheat and deeply bitter due to his disability, but it’s Vanda Lane, Helen Rodd, Miss Trapp and Louvaine Barker that have their weaknesses and foibles truly exposed. Not that Brand had a great deal of sympathy for the men either, but the nature of their flaws feel different, and the spotlight less cruel.

In the end, as well, Cockrill’s simply not that great a detective here, and his blindness is just frustrating — and because of a pretty face? Meh.

I always want to like Brand’s work a lot more than I do, but here we are.

Rating: 2/5