Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Publication
New York: Carroll & Graf, 1979
Description
Few were disappointed when Raoul Vernet was found with his head bashed in, dead in a pool of his own blood. On vacation in England, the Belgian seducer comes to visit Matilda, an old flame from a few years before. She agrees despite suspicions that Vernet has been deploying his legendary charm on another member of the family: young Rosie, who has returned from her Swiss boarding school carrying a child. None of the family members were in the house when Raoul was killed, but all were within a fog-choked London mile. Rosie calls in the brilliant Inspector Cockrill to clear the family's name, but what he finds is a twisted clan of seven people, each as likely to laugh at a murder as commit one.
Media reviews
User reviews
LibraryThing member mwittman
Hard to find classic from Christianna Brand - just when you think it's very much a 1950s bit of prudish writing, you fall into some good bits of down to earth rudeness (the "huh-hah" for pity's sake). Mind you, everyone is accused of the murder and near as dammit everyone IS actually put on trial
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for it (imagine the cost of those various trials), but an unusual ending. A bit rushed, as if the author got tired of writing and decided to wrap it up all in two pages . . . Show Less
LibraryThing member booksaplenty1949
Started this as a light read to alternate with sections of Crime and Punishment. Turned out to be dark and disturbing, especially as the story was embedded in many cosy elements of Miss Marple-era mystery: strange "foreign" maid in the basement flat, dotty grandma in the attic, etc. But Christianna
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Brand is simultaneously a "fair-play" mystery writer and one whose spin on human nature is deeply unconventional and potentially unsettling. I highly recommend London Particular, unless you are looking for escapist fare. Show Less
LibraryThing member BrianEWilliams
I liked this book more at the end of than I did at the beginning. It was a chore to get through the first several chapters, until Inspector Cockrill is called to the scene. It's a whodunit murder mystery set in England with an eccentric set of suspects who dither and fuss through most of the story,
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while the sleuthing is going on. There's chattiness and wordiness that prevents an easy read. A reader needs to be completely engaged in order to see the puzzle get resolved. There's a clever ending, that took this reader by surprise, which is always a good thing for me. Show Less
Subjects
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1952
Physical description
254 p.; 18 cm
ISBN
0881840653 / 9780881840650