2013 book 104

Christianna Brand's Heads You Lose
Brand wrote a bunch of mysteries in the 40s and 50s that are being reissued--this is the first in her Inspector Cockrill series, where the Inspector has to solve a particularly grotesque murder with only six suspects. I love these closed-rooms sort of mysteries, but was REALLY put off by all the casual anti-Semitism. What is it with British writers in the 40s and 50s and their need to include disparaging remarks about Jewish people? (One of the characters is Jewish--two characters who are sort of jerks make comments about him, but the author/narrator's descriptions and even the comments of his wife and her family often refer to Jews and money, it's gross.) The mystery itself is pretty engaging--I correctly guessed the killer but there were enough red herrings to have my doubting myself. Still, I can't give this more than a B b/c come on, lay off the Jews.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book is available now.