Death of Jezebel

First published in 1949, this newest addition to the British Library Crime Classics is an absolutely stunning "impossible crime" mystery: a murder is committed before thousands of spectators, but no one sees the perpetrator. The book--the fifth in Brand's Inspector Cockrill series--begins in 1940, when a young man commits suicide after discovering that his fiancée betrayed him. Seven years later, some of the deceased's friends take part in an elaborate, medieval pageant in London. Brand plays up the comic aspects of twelve amateur knights jostling each other backstage, and, also, the fact that their armor makes them completely unrecognizable. The theatrical logistics of the pageant are brilliantly rendered, especially the knights on horseback cantering in complicated formations through the arena. Then, a woman posing as a damsel in a wobbly tower falls to her death. But she was already dead when she fell and the door to the tower was locked from the inside. Inspector Cockrill is in the stands and, like the rest of the audience, he witnessed the whole thing but is completely baffled and soon begins receiving threats himself. Laced with Brand's caustic wit, this one is a true puzzler with a harrowing, revelatory climax.

An impossible crime featuring a severely limited number of suspects returns to print for the first time since 1949. Seven years after Johnny Wise killed himself upon discovering his fiancee, Perpetua Kirk, in a compromising position with actor Earl Anderson, the surviving parties are reunited for a medieval stage pageant managed by sugar daddy Edgar Port that features a castle, knights in armor, a damsel in distress, and more violent death. No less than three characters--Perpetua, Earl, and enticing, blackmailing Isabel Drew--receive anonymous notes telling them they're going to be murdered. As icing on the cake, Inspector Cockrill, an acquaintance of Perpetua's who's come down to London from Kent for a police conference, gets his own note assuring him that it's no joke. One of the threatened parties, strangled and tossed from the stage castle balcony in front of hundreds of eyewitnesses by a killer who somehow got past Susan Betchley, the wardrobe mistress stationed at the set's only entrance, fails to survive opening night, and a second is found soon afterward strangled and decapitated. Nostalgic readers who know their Brand (1907-88) will expect a mind-boggling set of complications, a playful atmosphere that extends to dubbing stage knight Brian Bryan "Brian Two-Times" and 17-year-old knight George Exmouth "Motherdear," and an endless series of false climaxes based on mendacious confessions and carefully planted red herrings before the curtain finally comes down. An additional bonus is the rivalry between rumpled Cockrill and oblivious DI Charlesworth from Scotland Yard. Despite the inspector's claim that "this is not a detective novel," that's exactly what it is, in spades. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.