Many people will fondly remember the classic Alastair Sim film
version of Brand's famous novel. And, delightful though that was,
the novel (as so often) affords the richer experience. The isolated
Heron's Park military hospital has been pressed into wartime service
as a safe refuge from the nightly bombing raids. But when a patient
dies under anaesthetic, and a nurse who claims to know what went
wrong also dies, it's up to Brand's chain-smoking Inspector Cockril
to discern which of the six remaining doctors and nurses is a
single-minded murderer. H R F Keating called this the finest novel
of the Golden Age detective story, and it's difficult to argue
with that assessment. There isn't a misstep in the machine-precision
plotting or concise and perceptive characterisation, and current
crime fiction practitioners could do worse than rediscover how
256 pages are all that are required for something as gem-like
as this.
