Yesterday we were in contemporary Sweden. Flip back about sixty years to England in the Blitz and you'll find a few more murder victims. Christianna Brand's Green for Danger is a nice, neat, tightly woven and well executed mystery set in a military hospital in Kent. I can't recommend this one highly enough. I came across this classic mystery in The Rough Guide to Crime Fiction, which is proving to be a very useful little book. Several other readers also gave a virtual nod of the head towards this one, and they couldn't have been more right. Apparently it has been called 'the last golden crown of the Golden Age detective story.' It certainly has some very famous contemporaries, but this mystery holds its own amongst them.
Brand wrote a series of mysteries featuring Inspector Cockrill, who'll solve this complicated little puzzle. Normally when I find a detective I like I'm all for looking up the rest of his (or her) books. Green for Danger was so nicely complete in and of itself, I won't mind if I don't read another Inspector Cockrill novel. This is considered Brand's masterpiece, so maybe I need look no further in any case. Besides I'm doing a little mini survey of the era so am looking for the best of the best representative books--no matter if they are part of a long running series or a standalone novel.
I never really felt like I got to know the Inspector, but the rest of the characters were so well drawn it didn't matter, and perhaps that was Brand's intention all along. Cockrill is steadily working away in the background, while the reader gets to see the crime enacted front and center with no distractions. A little is known about our detective, however. Cockrill is older. He's fastidious in his reasoning if not in his appearance. And his nicotine-stained fingers are a reminder that he can't go long without a cigarette. Evidence that times have seriously changed--while questioning a patient in the hospital both the detective and the soldier smoke to their heart's content. Yes, in the hospital.
The mystery is very cleverly set up. It begins with letters arriving at the hospital from the doctors and nurses who will be our suspects. From the start the reader is given little insights into their personalities and motivations. Three doctors and four nurses, to be specific one Sister and three VADs, make up that part of the staff that we're going to be concerned with. The Blitz is raging in the background. Soldiers and civilians injured in the bombing are being brought in. One of the victims is a civilian whose wounds are serious but not life-threatening. The next day, though his operation is routine, he dies while under anesthesia. No foul play is suspected, but Inspector Cockrill is brought in to make sure matters are attended to quickly.
Hospitals are microcosms of society at large, I think. People of varying natures are thrown together to get on as well as they can, if they can manage it. Doubtless there will be jealousies and petty squabbles, maybe a few little affairs and infatuations. When one of the nurses responds to one of these petty squabbles with an accusation of murder, rather a claim to know that murder has been committed and she has proof, I think we all know what's going to happen next. When said nurse is later found stabbed to death, Cockrill really does have a proper double murder on his hands. It doesn't take him long to solve the mystery, though. He knows the how and the why, and even who, but he doesn't have proof. He lets the six stew for a while, putting pressure on until the murderer finally breaks. There are some wonderful scenes where they are hashing things out, who was where and why this action was done and on and on. Everything plays out in front of the reader's eyes, and if you're savvy enough you'll figure it out. I had a few ideas, but alas, they didn't quite pan out.
There is a brief introduction by Lindsay Davis to the novel in my edition, which I found interesting and enlightening.
"Green for Danger, the second in the series, was first published in 1944. It is set in a military hospital and events during the Blitz are central to the plot. I find this fascinating. Tackling the period today, a historical novelist might think carefully about using that terrible background for pure entertainment; the choice now is either to write a frivolous kind of nostalgic comedy or to address the sorrows of the human condition with reverent seriousness. This novel reminds us that the writing and reading of popular fiction did not go into limbo, despite the shortage of paper and ink for 'non-essential' printing. Nor did authors have to resort to an invented fantasy world to give readers relaxation from the falling bombs. Contemporary writers went about their business, using everyday wartime life as basis material. Most salutary is that they managed to do so without knowing how or when the conflict was going to end."
One more note. The book was filmed in 1946 and is a classic in its own right. It's still available today from the Criterion Collection. My library owns most of the movies in that collection, so I'll be watching it soon. And I'm looking forward to reading more classic mysteries from my list and from suggestions made in the comments area!