Which Is The Best Christianna Brand Novel?

Dear listeners,

Christianna Brand is an author that I had long admired from afar. I had loved the 1946 film adaptation of Green for Danger starring Alastair Sim for years before I even read the novel, and other than a couple of her other titles that had been chosen as monthly reads by the Shedunnit Book Club, I wasn't very familiar with her crime fiction career.

This is why, in the first half of last year, I decided to devote several months to reading as much of her work as I could get my hands on, in publication order. The results of that effort went into the July 2024 episode "Christianna Brand's Impossible Crimes", which focused on her ability to craft clever, intricate puzzle plots without completely sacrificing character development and atmosphere.

I still had more to say, though. I had read fifteen Christianna Brand novels and some of them didn't even get mentioned in that 23-minute episode. I had a lot of unaired thoughts about which is the best Christianna Brand novel. So I got the microphone out again and carried on talking, putting all of these books in order from my least favourite to my favourite and giving reviews for each. Finally, I felt like I had reflected the full depth of my experiences with her work!

The Shedunnit Book Club read Death of Jezebel back in February 2023, having previously looked at Suddenly at His Residence in October 2020. Both novels are clever impossible crime stories that feature a recurring detective character, Inspector Cockrill.

This ranking initially went out just to Shedunnit Book Club members last year, but I'm now releasing it for everyone. I hope you find it interesting to hear my giving my rapid-fire personal opinion of a lot of books for a change, rather than just talking about their history and context.

Perhaps you will find your first Christianna Brand novel to try, or if you're an old Brand hand, feel tempted by one of her historical novels that were published under a pseudonym. She was a very talented writer with quite a wide-ranging bibliography, so I feel confident that there is enough variety to accommodate plenty of tastes. Do let me know what you think of the top of the list — was your favourite also my favourite?

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You can listen to this episode right now on all major audio platforms (just click the icon of your preferred app here to jump right in) as well as on the podcast's website, where there is also a full transcript to read if you prefer that. New episodes are also available on YouTube. If you're in the UK, you can listen ad free on BBC Sounds.

Thanks for being here — I'll be back with another newsletter next Wednesday that takes a deep dive into one author's appearances in the Shedunnit podcast archive.

Until next time,

Caroline

You can listen to every episode of Shedunnit at shedunnitshow.com or on all major podcast apps. Selected episodes are available on BBC Sounds. There are also transcripts of all episodes on the website. The podcast is now newsletter-only — we're not updating social media — so if you'd like to spread the word about the show consider forwarding this email to a mystery-loving friend with the addition of a personal recommendation.