"Hands down one of the best formal detective stories ever written."--
Kirkus Reviews, STARRED review
This Golden Age masterclass of red herrings and tricky twists, first
published in 1944, features a tense and claustrophobic investigation
with a close-knit cast of suspects.
"You have to reach for the greatest of the Great Names (Agatha Christie,
John Dickson Carr, Ellery Queen) to find Christianna Brand's rivals in
the subtleties of the trade."
--Anthony Boucher in The New York Times
It is 1942, and struggling up the hill to the new Kent military hospital
Heron's Park, postman Joseph Higgins is soon to deliver seven letters of
acceptance for roles at the infirmary. He has no idea that the sender of
one of the letters will be the cause of his demise in just one year's
time.
When Higgins returns to Heron's Park with injuries from a bombing raid
in 1943, his inexplicable death by asphyxiation in the operating theatre
casts four nurses and three doctors under suspicion, and a second death
in quick succession invites the presence of the irascible--yet
uncommonly shrewd--Inspector Cockrill to the hospital. As an air raid
detains the inspector for the night, the stage is set for a tense and
claustrophobic investigation with a close-knit cast of suspects.