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A review by melissa_who_reads
Heads You Lose by Christianna Brand
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.