Christianna Brand Books In Order

Death in High Heels

When Scotland Yard’s young Mr. Charlesworth calls at Christophe et Cie about a murder, he finds five charming young women all pretty, all suspects, all ready to obstruct his investigations. He would be hard pressed to say which causes more problems when there is a second murder, or when he falls in love with the main suspect. Reissue.

Heads You Lose

Pigeonsford Estate is playing host to a group of close friends when one of their number, Grace Morland, is found dead in a ditch. The murder is made even more unusual by the fact that Grace was wearing her friend Francesca’s hat, the same hat that only the day before she’d claimed she wouldn’t be caught dead wearing. Inspector Co*ckrill has known most of the friends since they were children. They are all from good families and very close to one another; how, then, could one of them be a cold blooded killer? And if one of them had murdered Grace which one was it and why had they done it? First published in 1941 Heads You Lose is a classic country house mystery that proves that in every friendship there are secrets, some of which are best left buried. ‘Christianna Brand is not merely a purveyor of thrills or a maker of puzzles. She is a novelist.’ Daily Telegraph

Green for Danger

Set in a military hospital during the blitz, this novel is one of Brand’s most intricately plotted detection puzzles, executed with her characteristic cleverness and gusto. When a patient dies under the anesthetic and later the presiding nurse is murdered, Inspector Co*ckrill finds himself with six suspects three doctors and three nurses and not a discernible motive among them.

Death of Jezebel

6 Cassettes Approximately 6 Hours 30 minutes reading time

London Particular / Fog of Doubt

Rosie, the naughty little nyphet around whom Christianna Brand weaves her witty and mysterious web, recounts to her family a series of fibs that results in their supposing the unfortunate suitor, Raoul Vernet, to be her base seducer. On a night of dense London fog, with everyone alibied, Raoul is discovered having been hit over the head with a blunt instrument. Reissue.

Tour de Force

The vacationing Inspector Co*ckrill is on the job again when a fellow tourist is stabbed to death on a small Mediterranean island. The local police, in Co*ckrill’s opinion, are illprepared for interrogating the tourload of suspects, she he takes it upon himself to confront these not so innocents abroad. The results, in high Brand style, are both suspenseful and hilarious.

The Spotted Cat and Other Mysteries from Inspector Co*ckrill’s Casebook

INSPECTOR COCKRILL INVESTIGATES

Christianna Brand the pseudonym of Mary Christianna Milne Lewis, 1907 1988 was a supreme mistress of the classic detective story, with twists and turns, and all the clues fairly given to the reader. The wizened, bird like Inspector Co*ckrill of the Kent police starred in Green for Danger, one of the greatest detective novels to emerge from World War II, but The Spotted Cat is the first collection of all of the short stories about him. Five of the stories have never previously appeared in a Brand volume, and one of them is published here for the first time. The book also includes a genuine ‘find,’ a previously unpublished three act detective drama featuring Co*ckrill.

This is the 5th volume of ‘Crippen & Landru Lost Classics.’

Nurse Matilda

The Brown children are terribly terribly naughty unbelievably naughty. All the nannies and nursery maids and governesses in the directory are called upon to implement some kind of order in the house but, inevitably, they are soon driven to distraction and of course leave having had absolutely no positive effect on the children’s indefatigable resource of mischief and anti social conduct all much to Mr and Mrs Brown’s horror and dismay. But apparently there is one last resort ‘What you need is Nurse Matilda.’ This is a gem of a book with episode after episode of relentless mischief and vast amounts of humour. Ardizzone’s illustrations are stunning throughout.

Nurse Matilda Goes to Town

Mr and Mrs Brown have a huge family of incredibly naughty children. They had once been fortunate enough to acquire the services of Nurse Matilda, who had transformed the children into models of good behaviour. But now the children have slipped back into their wicked ways: Tora has put glue in the sandwiches Emma has made a chocolate cake out of mud David has put a toad in the milk jug and Tim is tying Nanny’s shoelaces to her chair! Their stay in London with their Great Aunt Adelaide seems set for disaster until the arrival of Nurse Matilda

Nurse Matilda Goes to Hospital

‘Joanna had scraped up the uneaten rice pudding from all the plates and stuffed it into a spare pillow case. Louisa and Rebecca had collected the bunches of grapes which the patients’ kind relatives had brought them, and were treading them into wine in the hospital hip bath. Daniel had swapped round all the charts at the heads of the patients’ beds which told what was wrong with them, and added a few suggestions of his own. Romilly had turned the Little Ones’ cots upside down and made sort of wooden cages out of them; and the Little Ones were pretending to be in a zoo. All the other children were doing simply dreadful things too.’ The Brown children have feigned illness and been taken to hospital but with Nurse Matilda running the show they have little chance of keeping up their antics for long.

Nurse Matilda: The Collected Tales

Mr. and Mrs. Brown were forever having trouble with their numerous and incredibly naughty children…
until the day Nurse Matilda entered their lives. First published nearly fifty years ago, Nurse Matilda and its two companion books Nurse Matilda Goes to Town and Nurse Matilda Goes to Hospital have charmed readers ever since. Now the inspiration for the major motion picture Nanny McPhee, all three beloved books are available once again in a deluxe hardcover edition which features the three complete and unabridged books by Christianna Brand, along with Edward Ardizzone’s charming black and white illustrations.

Buffet for Unwelcome Guests: The Best Short Mystery Stories of Christianna Brand

Christianna Brand’s fiction features brisk prose, wry twists, plots that lure the reader into a false sense of having figured every contingency, and ironic turns that not only spice the narrative but supply its lifeblood. No one has read a Brand story who has failed to read the last sentence. Christianna Brand was born Mary Christianna Milne in Malaya in 1907. She spent her childhood in India. At 17 she learned her father had lost all his money. Without a shred of training or experience she found herself faced with earning a living. She held a string of jobs, but lent little distinction to any of them: nursery governess, packer of beaded dresses for export, hostess in a plush nightclub, professional ballroom dancer, model in Bond Street dress shops, and, most hopeless of all, secretary. In 1939, lacking any training in litera ture or journalism, Mary Milne decided to try writing fiction. Her first novel, Death in High Heels, was rejected by 15 publishers before The Bodley Head took it in 1941, published under the pen name, Christianna Brand.