Book Review//Death of Jezebel by Christianna Brand

Johnny Wise drives his car into a wall and dies because he is betrayed by the girl he loves, Perpetua Kirk. Years late, many of the people involved in that incident gather together to put on a medieval pageant at Elysian Hall.

A ‘sealed room’. A single entrance, bolted on the one side, bolted and guarded on the other. Two short lenghts of rope: a silly little verse: a diamond brooch. A man missing who could not be the murderer since he had been sitting on his horse when the murder was done: and a frightened girl locked up, but unharmed, in a room. And finally, eleven men in impenetrable disguise in full view of thousands of people: and a woman ten feet above their heads, strangled by two hands and thrown down out of a cardboard tower.

Inspector Cockrill answers Perpetua’s plea for help after three members of the pageant, including her, are threatened with death. Slowly, he pieces together how the past is affecting the present but will he be speedy enough in sorting out all the red herrings and false confessions?

I read Green for Danger last year and Heads You Lose last week. Both feature Inspector Cockrill and I enjoyed them. I enjoyed Death of Jezebel too but locked-room mysteries are not my favorite. I end up feeling like a lot of time is spent presenting possible solutions and then discrediting them so by the time the actual solution arrives it feels a little anticlimactic. Plus, I found much about this mystery sad. Everyone was damaged and unhappy. I know it was a murder mystery and I should expect a bit of unhappiness but I like a bit of light relief thrown in. That being said, I basically enjoyed it and will happily read more by Christianna Brand.

My copy of this book was kindly sent to me by the British Library. The ridiculous amount of time it took me to read and review it is all on me.