Brand, Christianna:  Green for Danger

Last month as one of my Book Challenge selections I read the short story collection English Country House Murders edited by Thomas Godfrey. (See Review in June) The story by Christianna Brand caught my attention and the blurb at the beginning mentioned that she had been a contemporary of the Golden Age of mystery writers (e.g. Christie, Marsh, Tey, and Sayers), had written several mystery novels featuring a detective named Cockrell, and was still very popular in England and on the continent. He suggested Green for Danger as her best one. This is definitely a classic mystery although in the way she develops her characters and handles her plot I think her style resembles Josephine Tey more than Agatha Christie. The setting is during the Blitz in a military hospital in a heavily bombed area that is forced to take in civilian casualties. Although it takes place in a hospital it still has the feel of a Country House Mystery because besides the victims we are only concerned with the six suspects, three doctors and three nurses, and the detective, Cockrell. The environs are the hospital, the grounds and the lodge house where the three women reside when not on duty. The motive for 2 of the murders is part of the mystery, for the characters as well as the reader. This mystery has interesting characters, gives an historically accurate picture of what was happening in England during the blitz and also a great description of medical practices at that time, some very suspenseful moments that are psychologically created rather than “chase related”and a very clever puzzle which keeps you guessing.

There were two things that made this book particularly appealing to me. I found the historical part of the book interesting because this was written in 1944 when the WWII era would have been fresh in Brand’s mind, up close and personal. I enjoyed comparing her descriptions with Jaqueline Winspear’s account in Maisie Dobbs, which is a 21^st century novel cum mystery set during and after the WWI era. I was especially tickled to spot a reference to the feathers that are the crux of Winspear’s second Maisie Dobbs novel, Birds of a Feather. I wonder if they did the same thing during WWII as they did in WWI or is it merely an anomaly. I will have to research that again. The other appealing aspect of this novel is that Brand fooled me in her solution to the mystery while completely playing fair. This does not happen to me very often. How much fun I had remembering the important clues that I had noticed but ignored because she hid them in plain sight so well. Classic mystry buffs should love this book!

Spencer-Fleming, Julia:  A Fountain Filled with Blood

Spencer-Fleming’s second cozy-cum-thriller to feature the Reverend Clare Fergusson, an ex-army helicopter pilot turned Anglican priest, is every bit as riveting as her first, In the Bleak Midwinter (2002). A series of gay bashings, the discovery of PCBs in a local elementary school playground and a brutal murder has Millers Kill, N.Y. in a turmoil that ends in murder. Clare, rector of St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, and the married police Chief Russ Van Alstyne, have spent the last six months avoiding each other in hopes of dispelling their mutual attraction. Now they find themselves working together on a murder investigation. The reflections of Clare and Russ as they examine their own hearts and struggle with their feelings never detract from the crime solving.  We see Clare as a unique person, whether daring to drive a sports car instead of a safer four-wheel-drive vehicle or claming herself by donning her vestments to perform an  unscheduled evening service of Compline in an empty church lit with candles.

I enjoyed this second novel in the series featuring Reverend Clare Fergusson, an ex-army helicopter pilot turned Anglican priest and Chief of Police Russ Van Alstyne, but this one left me with mixed feelings-not surprisingly the reviews I read on Amazon.com were very mixed, also.  Claire pulls a very reckless and dangerous stunt when she gets intoxicated at a party-which made me question how mature she is supposed to be.  I did enjoy the action of the helicopter episode (which some of the reviewers didn’t like, but I thought fit her character well)-but I had already guessed what would happen.  In this instance I was surprised that neither Russ nor Claire was suspicious enough of the circumstances to be more alert.  I thought the Gay issue in the plot was handled well.  Although S-F and I are at opposite ends of the political spectrum I liked the low keyed way she developed her theme of tolerance and made her characters 3 dimensional-not stereo-types.  The tension between Claire and Russ is increasing and in this book we meet Russ’s mother.  She is delightful.   I’m looking forward to reading the next book to how the soap opera unfolds. Luckily I got a late start on this series so I won’t have to wait long to continue it.