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shalini_gunnasan's review against another edition
3.0
This was a fun read although rather predictable.
melissa_who_reads's review
3.0
Very grusome murders in this one. And the resolution ... well, it covers all the bases, but emotionally it was very odd, especially in the epilogue. This one is a definite "stuck in it's time" - one of the main characters is Jewish, and he is loved/adored by his non-Jewish wife - but boy, everyone does keep having to mention he's Jewish all the time. ALL THE TIME. (SPOILERS AHEAD)
I half expected him to be revealed as the murderer (but spoiler alert) it was 1941 so that would have been a bit much. The War is glanced at a bit - one of the characters is in the Army, and another is in a "protected profession" and is not allowed to join up - but it feels very remote from the story as a whole. There isn't a lot of war-anxiety - a bare mention of black-out curtains, but no real fear of bombs dropping, or even rationing.
It is a bit of a locked room mystery, a closed circle of those who could have done - and some artful snow with no footprints leading to a murdered woman - further restricting who could possibly have done it. No one really seems to mourn the victims (one of whom was awful, an emotional mess, but the other seemed to be mostly class prejudice/obstacle) which felt a bit off with such horrific deaths. And I am not sure the psychology at the end was sound.
But for all the faults, it was entertaining, and I will read more of hers.
I half expected him to be revealed as the murderer (but spoiler alert) it was 1941 so that would have been a bit much. The War is glanced at a bit - one of the characters is in the Army, and another is in a "protected profession" and is not allowed to join up - but it feels very remote from the story as a whole. There isn't a lot of war-anxiety - a bare mention of black-out curtains, but no real fear of bombs dropping, or even rationing.
It is a bit of a locked room mystery, a closed circle of those who could have done - and some artful snow with no footprints leading to a murdered woman - further restricting who could possibly have done it. No one really seems to mourn the victims (one of whom was awful, an emotional mess, but the other seemed to be mostly class prejudice/obstacle) which felt a bit off with such horrific deaths. And I am not sure the psychology at the end was sound.
But for all the faults, it was entertaining, and I will read more of hers.
showell's review
4.0
I’ve read quite a lot of Josephine Tey, Agatha Christie, and Ngaio Marsh, but I’d never read anything by Christiana Brand, so I picked up Heads You Lose based on a stray recommendation via Book Twitter. First published in 1941, Heads You Lose is a classic English country house mystery, packed with aging spinsters, spry young things, and the wounded men who love them. Heads You Lose was a perfectly satisfying escape.
bmip666's review against another edition
dark
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
shanaqui's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Heads You Lose did some very interesting things, from my point of view: the sympathy with a particular character was genuinely affecting, to me at least, and I'm noting some patterns with her work that intrigue me. As a story, though, there were a few things that bothered me. It's a bit spoilery to go into them in depth, so I'll just start by saying that I think in the end I'd say it was worth reading, at least for me as a fan of this period of mystery/crime fiction, but I do have caveats and content warnings to go with that.
The main caveat is the fact that the plot hinges on the oft-derived trope of a mentally ill killer, one who has blackouts and commits crimes unbeknownst to himself. That means the third-person narration is sometimes a bit unreliable, as it sticks close to particular characters' POV, and thus misleads the reader. You have to read very closely to catch the clue, and of course you're not looking there for it.
I did think that the ending was rather better than the "psycho killer with blackouts" trope portended. There's a lot of pathos in the ending for that particular character and how it comes about.
I would also note that there's a Jewish character who is treated somewhat sympathetically, and yet at the same time with some anti-Semitic tropes. Of course this was common in the crime fiction in and around the Golden Age (Dorothy L. Sayers did similar in Whose Body?), but it's worth knowing going in.
I am noticing that Brand doesn't do much bringing her villains to justice. They usually die in some kind of appropriate way -- not in the way that some other detective novels do, with a "you should write a confession and shoot yourself, or I'll put the police in possession of what I know", but still, they each die. It has less of a "detective as judge and jury" ring, and more like... "the universe will put things right, somehow". Either way, an interesting thing to note, as I read more of Brand's work.
The main caveat is the fact that the plot hinges on the oft-derived trope of a mentally ill killer, one who has blackouts and commits crimes unbeknownst to himself. That means the third-person narration is sometimes a bit unreliable, as it sticks close to particular characters' POV, and thus misleads the reader. You have to read very closely to catch the clue, and of course you're not looking there for it.
I did think that the ending was rather better than the "psycho killer with blackouts" trope portended. There's a lot of pathos in the ending for that particular character and how it comes about.
I would also note that there's a Jewish character who is treated somewhat sympathetically, and yet at the same time with some anti-Semitic tropes. Of course this was common in the crime fiction in and around the Golden Age (Dorothy L. Sayers did similar in Whose Body?), but it's worth knowing going in.
I am noticing that Brand doesn't do much bringing her villains to justice. They usually die in some kind of appropriate way -- not in the way that some other detective novels do, with a "you should write a confession and shoot yourself, or I'll put the police in possession of what I know", but still, they each die. It has less of a "detective as judge and jury" ring, and more like... "the universe will put things right, somehow". Either way, an interesting thing to note, as I read more of Brand's work.
sadiqua_fatima's review against another edition
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
shellystilger's review against another edition
2.0
This book was first published in 1941, and it bugs me that the Goodreads listing, as well as the audiobook information lists only the re-release date of 1988. Either way, it hasn’t aged all that well. Much more frank about sexuality than many contemporary novels, it is also much more explicitly antisemitic, classist and racist, and that’s a drag. It’s true that the less sympathetic characters are the ones expressing the grossest antisemitism, so maybe that’s something to consider.