About this item
In the height of an English summer, Grandfather is found dead in the little Grecian lodge among the rose gardens of his estate. Inspector Cockrill has reason to believe that Sir Richard met with an untimely death, and that the evildoer is among the genteel family gathered at the rural manor. But why on earth would one of the loving brood do such a dreadful thing? the night he died, cantankerous Sir Richard was arranging to disinherit his offspring for the umpteenth time. Someone took murderous steps to protect their own interests. But the murderer left no scuff in the carefully raked sand paths, no trace on the manicured lawns of Swanswater
About the Author
Christianna Brand (December 17, 1907 - March 11, 1988) was a crime writer and children's author. Brand also wrote under the pseudonyms , Mary Roland, and China Thomson. She was born Mary Christianna Milne in 1907 in Malaya and spent her early years in India. She had a number of different occupations, including model, dancer, shop assistant and governess. Her first novel, Death in High Heels, was written while Brand was working as a salesgirl. In 1941, one of her best-loved characters, Inspector Cockrill of the Kent County Police, made his debut in the book Heads You Lose. The character would go on to appear in seven of her novels. Green for Danger is Brand's most famous novel. The whodunit, set in a World War 2 hospital, was adapted for film by Eagle-Lion Films in 1946, starring Alastair Sim as the Inspector. She dropped the series in the late 1950s and concentrated on various genres as well as short stories. She was nominated three times for Edgar Awards: for the short stories "Poison in the Cup" (EQMM, Feb. 1969) and "Twist for Twist" (EQMM, May 1967) and for a nonfiction work about a Scottish murder case, Heaven Knows Who (1960) . She is the author of the children's series Nurse Matilda, which Emma Thompson adapted to film as Nanny McPhee (2005) .Her Inspector Cockrill short stories and a previously unpublished Cockrill stage play were collected as The Spotted Cat and Other Mysteries from inspector Cockrill's Casebook, edited by Tony Medawar (2002) .