Green for Danger (Inspector Cockrill #2) in Reading the Detectives

Oct 22, 2023 Susan rated it it was amazing

First published in 1944, this is the second in Christianna Brand's novels featuring the chain smoking Inspector Cockrill (first book in the series is "Heads You Lose") and probably her most famous mystery, being made into a film with Alastair Sim. The novel is set during WWII in a military hospital. Brand herself was living near such a hospital, where her husband worked, during the blitz and brings much of her experiences at that time into this novel. She was told the best thing she could do for First published in 1944, this is the second in Christianna Brand's novels featuring the chain smoking Inspector Cockrill (first book in the series is "Heads You Lose") and probably her most famous mystery, being made into a film with Alastair Sim. The novel is set during WWII in a military hospital. Brand herself was living near such a hospital, where her husband worked, during the blitz and brings much of her experiences at that time into this novel. She was told the best thing she could do for the war effort was to carry on writing and bring much needed foreign currency into the country, so donning her tin hat and dodging the bombs, she completed this book. Although WWII crime mysteries are virtually a genre unto themselves these days, this is very much the real thing and you can feel the authenticity of experience in every line.

The novel is set at Heron's Park in Kent, a former children’s sanatorium, now a military hospital. The main characters are Gervase Eden, who ran a successful Harley Street practice before the war, Jane Woods, who was a successful dress designer (Brand ties this in nicely with a previous novel "Death in High Heels": Inspector Charlesworth Series, Book 1), Esther Sanson, a young VAD with a hypochondriac mother, Mr Moon, a local surgeon, Dr Barnes, a local anaesthetist, Frederica Linley, a young VAD and Sister Marion Bates. These characters are tied together by secrets, relationships and by becoming suspects when an old man, Joseph Higgins, dies in the operating theatre. There seems no plausible motive to kill the harmless elderly man, who in peacetime was a postman. However, as Cockrill is called in to investigate, what could have been an accident becomes obviously a case of murder.

I am so glad that Christianna Brand's crime novels have been re-published and hope she reaches a new audience. Her books are excellent, fast paced and with an exciting plot and great characters. This is a vastly enjoyable mystery, with a real sense of place and time. If you wish to read on in the series, the next book is “The Crooked Wreath”. If you are a fan of Golden Age Detective fiction and like a good 'whodunnit', then you will certainly enjoy Christianna Brand. ...more

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Jun 05, 2023 Lady Clementina ffinch-ffarowmore rated it it was amazing

My thanks to Poisoned Pen Press for a review copy of this book via NetGalley!

A military hospital amidst the blitz; a closed group of doctors, nurses and VADs working together, an unexplained but unsuspicious death on the operating table—a tense situation but nothing exceptional. But add to it one more incident (this time clearly a murder) and you have the recipe for a gripping and very readable murder mystery that author Christianna Brand gives us.

Green for Danger opens with a postman delivering My thanks to Poisoned Pen Press for a review copy of this book via NetGalley!

A military hospital amidst the blitz; a closed group of doctors, nurses and VADs working together, an unexplained but unsuspicious death on the operating table—a tense situation but nothing exceptional. But add to it one more incident (this time clearly a murder) and you have the recipe for a gripping and very readable murder mystery that author Christianna Brand gives us.

Green for Danger opens with a postman delivering 7 letters, each concerning or concerned with one of those who soon form our closed group of suspects—Mr Moon, Dr Barnes and Mr Eden (two surgeons and an anaesthetist), Nurse Bates, and VADs Jane Woods, Esther Sanson, and Frederica ‘Freddi’ Linley. Sometime later we join them at Heron’s Park, a military hospital just outside Kent, where all seven are working, coping with the stream of patients that come in because of the blitz, as well as the usual run of patients. We get a sense of the personal dynamics between them—as friends and co-workers of course, but also the tensions brought in by romantic and perceived romantic attachments (Eden especially being the Casanova of the group); and of course, each has their secret. Amidst all this one evening, a man rescued from the blitz who has an injured leg and needs surgery is brought in. A fairly simple operation, no one is much bothered, but when the patient dies on the operating table, moments after anaesthesia is administered, the team is naturally upset but there doesn’t seem anything out of order with this unanticipated death.

Nonetheless, an inquiry much must be conducted and it is Inspector Cockrill or Cockie to whom the matter is assigned, and who turns out to know at least two of our group. Expecting nothing more than a formal inquiry, the Inspector speaks to all concerned, but then something happens which convinces him (and everyone else) that it has to have been a murder. Before long Cockie lets his bunch of suspects know that he has identified whodunit, but he is still working out the how. While investigations continue, tensions build amongst the group for there is seemingly none with a motive, and no reason for any to suspect the other, yet one of them is a killer. But who? And indeed, why?

Green for Danger turned out an engrossing and interesting read which had me hooked all though (apart from the first few chapters that I had started at bedtime, I read all the rest in one sitting the next afternoon [Sunday] and didn’t want to put it down till I knew who and why). Brand builds the tension excellently and keeps up the suspense right till the end, even then throwing one off course right till the very moment of the reveal. That feeling of danger in green always lurking around stays with one, and another surgery that we witness with the same team especially keeps one entirely on the edge of one’s seat.

The whodunit and why are exciting of course (neither of which I could work out), but as much a perplexing part of the puzzle is the howdunit. I enjoyed watching Inspector Cockrill figure out how it was done (very much reminiscent of Robin Cook and Coma making me realise that he wasn’t the first to use this method; and also in a way an Enid Blyton published, believe it or not, in the very same year).

As Brand’s husband was himself a surgeon (I can’t remember if she was a VAD, but I think she may have been), we have very authentic descriptions of the hospital (the layout of the operating theatre, equipment—much of it the latest in terms of the time) as also the routines of the doctors, nurses and VADs, the small bits of time snatched out of a busy schedule for a break or rest or even small entertainments (like a party when the commanding officer is away), or the (unsurprisingly) awful meals at the mess, and the constant arrival of patients, often in pain or distress, to be tended to and comforted in the midst of the blitz which has by this time become so commonplace that none bats an eyelid, or bothers to go into a shelter unless compelled by the authorities. The story takes us right in the midst of the time and place, and the tensions created by these and the human elements and relationships involved.

This was the first mystery I’ve read by Brand, who I only recently discovered wrote mysteries (previously I was aware of--but still haven’t read—her children’s books—specifically the Nurse Matilda [whom we know through films as Nanny McPhee]) and I enjoyed every bit of it. With excellent atmosphere, well drawn out characters—each with their secrets and complications, yet none sinister or seemingly capable of murder, an excellent puzzle which keeps us engaged on the who, why and how all the way through, this is a book I very much recommend. My only tiny complaint was it did take a bit of time for the first death to occur but after that … we zoom right through!
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Jan 10, 2018 ShanDizzy rated it liked it · review of another edition

Ok, so far this reads like a sappy romance triangle even though it's a murder myster...supposedly.

"Frederica had retreated into the dark recess of the screens round the newcomer's bed; she came to the door and stood there, staring after them. "My God' supposing she does tell Barney!" Their unconsciously raised voices had reached her clearly through the thin partition. "Supposing she tells Barney - he'd never speak to me again; he'd never love me again! I should lose him, and all for a man like Ok, so far this reads like a sappy romance triangle even though it's a murder myster...supposedly.

"Frederica had retreated into the dark recess of the screens round the newcomer's bed; she came to the door and stood there, staring after them. "My God' supposing she does tell Barney!" Their unconsciously raised voices had reached her clearly through the thin partition. "Supposing she tells Barney - he'd never speak to me again; he'd never love me again! I should lose him, and all for a man like Gervase Eden...Gervase would love me for a week or a month, and then just let me go. 'I want to remember our little affair with affection and gratitude, Freddi; be a little darling, my pet, and let me go!' He has every woman in the place running after him, and he doesn't want any of them...any of the others. But he does want me! It was only because of Barney...Oh, my God! Barney, why don't I just stick to you, when you're so decent and sweet and you love me so much more than I deserve...but the moment Gervase comes along - he doesn't say anything he doesn't do anything, he never even touched me before tonight...but my heart turns over and my knees go to water...it's disgusting, really it is, it's nothing but sex, that's all! It's just my misfortune to look like a blinking machine and all the time be a raging furnace underneath. Oh, well!"

Starting in the latter part of chapter IV, it get's interesting. (Inspector Cockrill speaking) "Sixty faces turned towards him through a fog of Irish stew as he made his way to their dining room and solemnly mounted a chair. He stood before them, completely unselfconscious, his mackintosh hanging in folds about him, his felt hat crushed into a bundle under his arm, ceaselessly rolling a chain of untidy cigarettes, and made them a little speech. He knew how to be charming when he would, and now shamelessly exploited this gift. "You all look like sensible, responsible (and very delightful) young ladies," was the burden of his song. "I'm here on a perfectly ordinary, uninteresting, regulation inquiry into the death of a patient in the operating theatre, and I look to you not to talk a lot of nonsense about it; or better still not to talk about it at all."

(One of the nurses speaking after Cockrill started questioning the staff) "All done by mirrors," said Woody promptly. "He took one look at us, sized us up quite correctly as a horde of sex-starved women, and exerted his doddering masculine appeal to lull us into a false security."

01.12.2018 Finished this story and WOW, I did NOT see THAT person as the murderer! Excellent story. ...more

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Mar 05, 2023 Gina rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Let me get this out of the way. I don't like Inspector Cockrill. He thinks too highly of himself, and is dismissive of others, especially women. BUT, Christianna Brand is such a good writer, her plots are so well-developed, and her characters are so real, that I like her books, anyway, even if the sometimes irritate me.

"Green for Danger" is probably her best-known work. She used her wartime experience to populate her tale with the doctors and nurses who would have been found in a WWII medical fa ...more

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Apr 16, 2024 Layton rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, 5-star-downright-incredible, underrated-writer, read-on-kindle, thriller, books-i-own, great-cover-great-book, favorite-books

One of the most common criticisms of mystery novels written during the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, is that so many of the characters are merely caricatures and have little personality or any memorable qualities…Green for Danger is the antidote to this assessment. A brilliant work of mystery fiction which also broke my heart, and made me laugh many times at Brand’s witty prose, I adored this book.

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Aug 05, 2017 Jill rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018-reading-challenge, christianna-brand

Really liked this book. I think that maybe the fact that we got to know the characters helped a lot. My money was on the wrong person being the villain, and the explanation at the end was great!
At first the setting of a hospital did put me off a bit, when an operation was written about giving more details than I wanted to know, but thankfully this didn't happen again. The portrayal of the war going on around the hospital seemed to be as I would imagine it must have been, and the relationships we ...more

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