The Rose in Darkness

Inspector Charlesworth #2

by Christianna Brand

While running for her life, a failed actress comes across a dead bodySari Morne had a shot at stardom, a five-year deal with a European film studio, and a starring role in an Italian romance that was poised to become a classic. But the film flopped, and Sari wasted her big break, disappearing from the set to flirt with her new Prince Aldo, heir to a dukedom. Three years later, she is washed up, and all she has left from her romance is a ring—the tremendous heirloom diamond that the Duke’s associates will kill to retrieve. Sari is being chased by the Duke’s henchmen when a tree falls across her path. She swaps cars with a man on the other side of the fallen timber, who is in just as much of a hurry as she is. When she reaches home, she realizes why. There is a corpse in the back seat—a young woman, beautiful no more. Death is all around her, and Sari’s only hope is to keep running.

Genres: Mystery, Golden Age Mystery

416 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

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).

Her Inspector Cockrill short stories and a previously unpublished Cockrill stage play were collected as The Spotted Cat and Other Mysteries from inspector Cockrill's Casebook, edited by Tony Medawar (2002).

Series:
* Nurse Matilda
* Inspector Charlesworth
* Inspector Chucky
* Inspector Cockrill

Reviews

[Orinoco Womble (tidy bag and all) · Rating 3 out of 5]

As I read online somewhere, Brand again finds herself in a time warp. Published in 1979, there's a definite 50s feel to it. Perhaps it was written earlier and then reworked for later publication. (Is it possible that in 1979 a woman with no social life would not own a television? It would be in the 50s, but surely not by nearly the 80s). Brand does include fashion details that are definitely late 70s or early 80s, and I wonder if Sari's appearance was drawn from Annie Lennox, the Eurythmics singer who wore a blonde buzz cut. Somehow, though, all that luvvydom does feel of an earlier period. "Sofa," the actress who plays fat-girl parts even though they're now thin on the ground, does sound rather like poor Lynne Redgrave who put on all that weight to play Georgie Girl and then discovered that fat cells can be emptied but will never go away unless you have liposuction; this was a decade before Pam Ferris played Ma Larkin, and Catherine Zeta-Jones as Mariette Larkin was definitely more zaftig than she is these days. Brand's version of the British film industry also has a definite 1950s feel to it.

A beautiful former actress (who just happens to be filthy rich in her own right, of cuss) is either being chased by a minor mafia or she isn't. Her friends don't believe her--she is after all a drama queen. When her former dresser turns up dead in the back of her car, everyone wonders whodunit and why. Do they believe her wild tale of trading cars with a stranger in a storm?

It was a fun read for the first 2/3 of the text, but then it began to drag and by the end I was just trudging. The Island of San Juan el Pirata, eh? (Geh.) Brand enjoys her twists and turns and handles red herrings with consummate skill...but after awhile I was waiting for it to end. I don't know if the final page of my copy was missing, but if not I felt sold. It doesn't seem to be missing a page, so yeah. At first I was surprised that no one else had written a review, though there are several star ratings, but having finished it perhaps I'm not. It's OK to pass the time but there's no more depth to it than to the saucer under my teacup. Shame, because with a little more character development and less obfuscation it could have been a five-star read.

[dmayr · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sari Morne, the star of her only movie The Spanish Steps is chased by a car one stormy evening and ends up swapping her new Halcyon with a stranger's. Except that her own car is back in the morning with a dead body in it. Ex-wife of Prince Aldo of the republic of San Juan el Pirata, Sari believes she is being chased by The Followers to get back the precious betrothal ring that Aldo had gifted her years before, and that they are responsible for the poor corpse in her car, which turned out to be somebody from her past. Sari and the rest of the Eight are portrayed colorfully, and one gets caught up with the hysteria and paranoia that surrounds Sari in every turn. Are the Rosa Mafia real, or just a figment of Sari's vivid imagination? I enjoyed the introduction of the characters in the first half of the book but when nothing seems to get resolved near the end, all these references to 'chicking sangwidge', 'little wee','ap-solutely beserk' get tedious after a while, hence the three stars.

[Melissa Lindberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an odd read; she wrote in the 1970s, but everyone kept behaving/talking as if it were the 1950s, so I was always confused as to period. And you knew the main character was unreliable, but in what way was unclear. My edition ended very oddly as well - I feel like the last page was actually missing (in a Kindle edition!). Very abrupt. I may try to get a print edition to see if it was the actual end or not. Lots of action, not a bad read - but very odd all the way through.

[Larkin · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's ironic that the one time I do want to see a spoiler review, I can't find one. The story was only a 2-star until the ending, when it suddenly became a 1-star. Do not recommend.

[Allamanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two stars for most of the book and four for the last twenty pages.

[Mentatreader · Rating 3 out of 5]

This publisher has very poor quality standards. All books so far have had typesetting errors and typos. Paying a single reader to check it seems beyond what care they wish to take. This one is worst than most in that there is something wrong, possibly a whole paragraph of text or more missing from the end of Chapter 13.

It somewhat promised to be an engaging murder mystery but it took too long to produce the corpse. Giving the characters their own slang does not help in the reading flow and adds to the following. Why do authors think that giving all their characters, save one, annoying, unlikeable characteristics improve the story? In this case, one did not care who the murder or murdered was, all were obnoxious. Hanging them all would be an acceptable solution.

[Lin Collette · Rating 1 out of 5]

A huge disappointment

I really wanted to like this, but Sari, the main character... she ruined it. Any thought of actually solving the mystery--i was confused even if there was a mystery to solve--was destroyed by her character. Billed as a Charlesworth mystery, there was very little of that character. I only read the book to the end so that I could claim it on my books read count, but it was a huge disappointment

[Shawn Conner · Rating 5 out of 5]

My new favourite author! This was a joy from start to finish—great mystery, great characters, great writing. Only found out about her when, on a recent Empire podcast, Quentin Tarantino mentioned reading a couple of her novels after watching the movie Green For Danger (based on her novel). Looking forward to the next.

[Leslie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I never saw the solution for this one coming! However, this book published in the late 1970s, one of Brand's last, seemed more dated to me than many of her earlier books. The plot was interesting but there really wasn't much detection in it...

[James Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

My review -- https://jamesscottbyrnside.com/2019/0...

[Kirsten · Rating 4 out of 5]

There’s a dead body in Sari’s car, but how did it get there? Sari switched cars last night after a tree blocked the road...but this morning her car is back with a body. Sari is a beautiful, charismatic, high-strung, and loopy former actress who lives on her fame from one movie and a brief marriage to a Prince. She has 7 groupies, and they are known as the 8. The police investigate, a doctor falls in love with Sari, but nothing is as it seems.....and then there are these people who follow Sari trying to get the King’s ring back. Doesn’t make sense —not to the police either. And everyone is suspected and accused....but only one is the murderer....
A fun novel by an Agatha Christie contemporary...lots of characters and settings and convolutions of plot, but that’s the whole point.