What do You think about Green For Danger (1996)?
In the wee hours of the morning, I closed Ms Brand's "Green for danger" with a satisfactory sigh. It is not often that a murder mystery manages to surprise me now. Thanks to having read and re-read Agatha Christie zillions of times, I assumed that I was up to every trick that a mystery author could throw at me. But Ms Brand successfully managed to fob me off. As in Agatha Christie's "Cards on the table", we have a limited set of suspects. The puzzle is tantalizing. You know you should expect the unexpected but the problem was defining the unexpected. Quite brilliantly done.As much as the solution to the mystery is brilliant, what makes this a most notable work is the picture it paints of the World War and how medical units operated during those days. We get but fleeting peeks into this life but they are what make this book distinguish itself from just-another-murder-mystery. The air raids, the procedures to be taken during air raids, how hospitals and its personnel reacted to such incidents - these are truly captivating. This is not a historical novel - Ms Brand was simply recounting life as it existed then, which makes this more like a live document of the times.Despite all these positives going for it, the book somehow has a rather "pulpy" feel to it and I strong suspect the rather sloppy romance to be the cause. Ms Brand can write mysteries well enough but she is definitely no romance writer. The romance in fact brought to my mind bad, forgettable scB-grade and some war time Hollywood movies of the 1930s and 40s. I love the movies of that period but the B-graders were pretty obvious. When the book begins to read like such movies, you are turned off.Inspector Cockrill was good fun for most part, but somehow somehow, not all that memorable at the end of the book. I watched the movie adaptation after completing the book. They have done a marvelous job with it and Alistair Sim is particularly brilliant as Cockrill.Overall, my rating for this book would be an Average- 2.5 would be an accurate rating.
—Imsathya
Not a review, just a preamble...There's no special effect as remotely interesting or satisfying as watching Alistair Sim turn his lanky bowling pin frame on his heels, then cower in a half crouch as he looks skyward for the German buzz bombs he so much fears in the 1946 British mystery film, Green For Danger (recently released on Criterion, and which I intend to buy). It's obvious the debt John Cleese's physical comedy owes to Sim. My interest in this original source novel stems wholly from my love for that classic, woefully underrated British film. Sim plays inspector Cockrill in the film version, and after seeing him play a police inspector in that and in the later classic movie adaptation of J.B. Priestley's An Inspector Calls, I have to say I think he's my favorite detective actor in all of filmdom.So, my library has this book and it is so marked.
—Evan
Brand delivers a good mystery that keeps the reader guessing until the end. After a patient dies on the table, an investigation ensues leading Inspector Cockrill on a merry chase. The book follows the lives of a group of medical staff during the war, and Brand gives each of these characters their own distinct personalities. Each character had the opportunity to commit the crime, and Inspector Cockrill has his work cut out for him proving who the murderer is. The book is an interesting read that delivers a lot of twists and turns, and I honestly did not guess the culprit before the reveal. If you are looking for a good old fashioned who done it, then this is the book for you.
—Susan
