1
of
1
London Particular
Series: British Library Crime Classics
Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.
Check link for latest rating. ( 492 ratings, 88 reviews)
Brief Description
"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 Night falls in the capital, and a "London particular" pea-souper...
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$2799
Unit price
/
Unavailable
AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER
Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 4-6 weeks
Found a better price? Request a price match
London Particular
$2799
Unit price
/
Unavailable
First published in 1952, London Particular was Brand's favourite among her own books, and it remains a fast-paced and witty masterpiece of the genre, showing off the author's signature flair for the ruthless twist.
Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and
still learning, it may not be perfect - your
feedback is welcome!
Description
"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
Night falls in the capital, and a "London particular" pea-souper fog envelops the city. In Maida Vale, Rose and her family doctor Tedwards struggle through the dark after a man has telephoned from Rose's house, claiming to have been attacked. By the time they arrive, the victim, Raoul Vernet, is dead. The news he brought from Switzerland for Rose's mother has died with him.
Arriving to the scene, Inspector Cockrill faces a fiendish case with seven suspects who could have murdered their guest—family members and friends with alibis muddled by the suffocating fog and motives wrapped in mystery. Now, the race is on to find the truth before the killer strikes again.
First published in 1952, London Particular was Brand's favourite among her own books, and it remains a fast-paced and witty masterpiece of the genre, showing off the author's signature flair for the ruthless twist.
Series: British Library Crime Classics
View all-
Murder in Vienna
After all, under its gaiety and brilliance, Vienna has always been a centre of intrigue. The distinguished industrialist, the fair girl, and the aggressive young man—although Superintendent McDonald tried to avoid studying his fellow-passengers, he simply couldn't help it. For him, it was difficult to adjust to being on holiday. He turned away deliberately. These people weren't his problem; he...Paperback$2500Elsewhere:$2699Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Antidote to Venom
Antidote to Venom by Freeman Wills Crofts delivers a captivating puzzle for all mystery enthusiasts, as praised by the Times Literary Supplement: "Mr Wills Crofts is deservedly a first favourite with all who want a real puzzle." Similarly, the Daily Mirror commends, "He always manages to give us something that really keeps us guessing." George Surridge, the director of the...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
A Telegram from Le Touquet
As he walked away from the phone, there was a puzzled expression on Blampignon's massive countenance. He was thinking: Le Touquet again! With some trepidation, Nigel Derry approaches the country house of his enigmatic and unpredictable aunt Gwenny for an Easter holiday visit. After a tense few days in which her guests' interactions range from awkward dinners to a knife...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Before the Fact
Some women give birth to murderers, some go to bed with them, and some marry them. Lina Aysgarth had lived with her husband for nearly eight years before she realised that she was married to a murderer. Following the success of Malice Aforethought, novelist Anthony Berkeley Cox returned to his Francis Iles pen-name for another experiment in the inverted mystery....Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Big Ben Strikes Eleven
The discovery of Sir Robert Boniface's body on the floor of his blue limousine was made quite accidentally on a sultry Friday evening towards the end of June. The industrial and financial tycoon, and former stalwart of the British Cabinet, had been shot in the head and left in the quiet Vale of Health alongside London's Hampstead Heath. Nearby, a...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Calamity in Kent
In the peaceful seaside town of Broadgate, an impossible crime occurs. The operator of the cliff railway locks the empty carriage one evening; when he returns to work the next morning, a dead body is locked inside—a man who has been stabbed in the back. Jimmy London, a newspaper reporter, is first on the scene. He is quick on the...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Capital Crimes
With its fascinating mix of people—rich and poor, British and foreign, worthy and suspicious—London is a city where anything can happen. The possibilities for criminals and for the crime writer are endless. London has been home to many of fiction's finest detectives, and the setting for mystery novels and short stories of the highest quality. Capital Crimes is an eclectic...Paperback$2999Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Castle Skull
That is the case. Alison has been murdered. His blazing body was seen running about the battlements of Castle Skull. And so a dark shadow looms over the Rhineland where Inspector Henri Bencolin and his accomplice Jeff Marle have arrived from Paris. Entreated by the Belgian financier D'Aunay to investigate the gruesome and grimly theatrical death of actor Myron Alison,...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Checkmate to Murder
On a dismally foggy night in Hampstead, London, a curious party has gathered in an artist's studio to weather the wartime blackout. A civil servant and a government scientist are matching wits in a game of chess, while an artist paints the portrait of his characterful sitter, bedecked in Cardinal's robes at the other end of the room. In the...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Cat and Mouse
Girls Together magazine agony-aunt 'Mrs Friendly-wise', aka Katinka Jones, finds herself at a loose end in Swansea, and decides to pay a surprise visit to one of the magazine's regular correspondents, 'Amista'. But reaching the address—a strange house perched atop a mountain which matches all of the descriptions in the letters—nobody has even heard of 'Amista'. As Katinka begins to...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
The Christmas Egg
A new award-winning author joins the Crime Classics series with one of her best novels. This is a mystery of international intrigue set in London at Christmas time, mixing the best parts of traditional mystery with thriller elements such as a climactic chase involving a helicopter! The Easter egg. I told 'im. All white an' glittering, lovely, like ice an'...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
The Ten Teacups
There will be ten teacups at number 4, Berwick Terrace, W. 8, on Wednesday, July 31, at 5 p.m. precisely. The presence of the Metropolitan Police is respectfully requested. Writing as Carter Dickson, the master of the locked room mystery, John Dickson Carr, returns to the Crime Classics series. He pitches his series amateur detective, Henry Merrivale, against a seemingly...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780712355407
Publisher: British Library Publishing
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 10 April 2024
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: British Library Publishing
Contributors:
- Introduction by Martin Edwards
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Width: 130.0mm
Height: 190.0mm
Weight: 250g
Pages: 256
About the Author
Christianna Brand (19071988) was born in British Malaya and was one of the most celebrated crime writers of the twentieth century. She is best known for her mystery novels featuring Inspector Cockrill along with the Nurse Matilda books for children, which were adapted for screen as Nanny McPhee. The Cockrill novels Green for Danger, Death of Jezebel and Suddenly at His Residence have been published as British Library Crime Classics.
Also by Christianna Brand
View all-
Bodies from the Library 4
This annual anthology of rare stories of crime and suspense brings together tales from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction for the first time in book form, including a short novel by Christianna Brand. Mystery stories have been around for centuries—there are whodunits, whydunits and howdunits, including locked-room puzzles, detective stories without detectives, and crimes with a limited choice of...Paperback$2300Elsewhere:$2500Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Cat and Mouse
Girls Together magazine agony-aunt 'Mrs Friendly-wise', aka Katinka Jones, finds herself at a loose end in Swansea, and decides to pay a surprise visit to one of the magazine's regular correspondents, 'Amista'. But reaching the address—a strange house perched atop a mountain which matches all of the descriptions in the letters—nobody has even heard of 'Amista'. As Katinka begins to...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Death of Jezebel
At Elysian Hall, a great exhibition space in post-War London, a cast has been assembled for a Medieval pageant show. There are knights in coloured armour, real horses, and a fair damsel in the tower on high. Tragedy is in the air when several members of the troupe are sent death threats before the show, and the worst comes to...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Green for Danger
It is 1942, and struggling up the hill to the new military hospital, Heron's Park, Kent, postman Higgins has no idea that the sender of one of the seven letters of application he is delivering will turn out to be a murderer in a year's time. When Higgins is brought in following injuries from a bombing raid in 1943, his...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Tour de Force
Tour de Force is "written with much ingenuity, gaiety of colour and bright, joyful malice," according to Julian Symons in the Times Literary Supplement, 1955. Inspector Cockrill has finally booked a holiday, destined for a Mediterranean tour with a motley crew of fellow vacationers. By the time they have reached the island of San Juan el Pirata off the Italian...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Suddenly at His Residence
Christianna Brand is not merely a purveyor of thrills or a maker of puzzles. She is a novelist. - The Daily Telegraph While the Blitz bombards London, the boisterous grandchildren of Sir Richard March have descended upon Swanswater Manor in Kent for a family gathering and the finalising of the patriarch's will. Disgruntled by the behaviour and life choices of...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
The Nurse Matilda Collection
Once upon a time there was a huge family of children; and they were terribly, terribly naughty … So begin the tales of the no-nonsense Nurse Matilda who uses magic to tame the mischievous children in her charge – and who changes their lives forever. The inspiration for the much-loved film Nanny McPhee, starring Emma Thompson and Colin Firth, the...PaperbackSold Out -
Death in High Heels
'My dear Inspector, this is simply nonsense. Girls don't murder each other in respectable dress shops.'Life for the staff of the West End boutique Christophe et Cie is hard enough with all the pressures of delivering the ambitious Mr. Bevan's vision and then comes murder, a poisoning via the toxic crystals of hat-cleaner, pitching haute couture into heinous crime.Faced with...PaperbackSold Out
More from Crime & Thriller
View all-
New ReleaseEvery Lake
Scary stories are fun... until your life becomes one. When Alice was fifteen, her father killed Mia Heywood in their lakefront cottage before vanishing into the trees. At least that's what the locals think happened. Over a decade later, Alice has lost her job as a journalist, she's going through an expensive divorce and she desperately needs to sell the...Paperback$3299Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New ReleaseIt Could Have Been Her
PREPARE TO BE HOOKED: The no. 1 Sunday Times and MULTI-million-copy bestselling author is back with a brand-new spine tingling thriller. It was the night she almost died. Jane Trevally, newly divorced and feeling a little lost, agrees to accompany a man she doesn't know to his house in the darkest corner of Hampstead Heath. She's offered a drink, goes in, and...Paperback$3000Elsewhere:$3800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New Release26 Beauties
The twenty-sixth thrilling novel in the globally bestselling Women's Murder Club series. Beautiful young women are disappearing by the dozen. A celebration is cut short when a concerned father crashes Detective Inspector Lindsay Boxer's party. His daughter is missing - and she's not the only one. DI Lindsay Boxer has been tracking a chilling pattern: a Jane Doe washed ashore,...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New ReleaseThe Secrets We Hide
The stunning new North Falls thriller by the bestselling author of We Are All Guilty Here 'Quite simply, Karin Slaughter is the best of us' Dervla McTiernan Welcome back to North Falls -- a small town with big secrets. The house at 1601 Iris Drive looks like any other in the quiet, residential street. But rumours are rife about the Vickery...Paperback$3099Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New ReleaseThe Parkwood Murders
They came for an escape, but can they escape a killer? Detective Nicola Bridge returns in another gripping and immersive mystery For its loyal guests, Parkwood Holiday Village in west Dorset is a haven- woodland walks, a tranquil lake, service around the clock. Until, just after midsummer, a body is found floating in the swimming pool. Detective Nicola Bridge, exhausted...Paperback$3000Elsewhere:$3800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Hope Rises
'BALDACCI IS STILL PEERLESS' - THE SUNDAY TIMES REVENGE IS A DISH BEST SERVED COLD . . . Walter Nash, working under the alias of Dillon Hope, is on the road to revenge after becoming an informant for the FBI against a global criminal operation headed up by Victoria Steers. Steers has ripped everything Nash held dear away from him....Paperback$3099Elsewhere:$3800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New Release
Slash
A year after a brutal shootout left her lover dead, ex-police sergeant Honey Chalmers is a hot mess, drinking too much and eating too little, working casual gigs for a shady firm of private investigators — while holding conversations with a ghost. A desperate father asks her to investigate his missing son — a double-murder suspect last seen during the...Paperback$3200Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New ReleaseA River Red With Blood
The players call it the Game, and its aim is simple: to abduct and kill a stranger without getting caught. They're very good at it. They've been playing it for a long time. And they can keep playing as long as everyone sticks to the rules: No Killing Close to Home and No Killing Outside the Game. But those rules...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
The Shadow Step
The new Detective Miller thriller from bestselling author Mark Billingham, full of tension, wit and incredible twists. The Shadow Step: One taken simultaneously by a pair of dancers facing the same direction, one of them behind and slightly shifted leftwards ('in the shadow') Typically, such a step perfectly demonstrates synchronized elegance. It showcases a couple in near telepathic harmony with...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableBackorderShips mid August -
New ReleaseBlue Lightning
Blue Lightning The fourth Shetland novel A remote island on lockdown. A killer on the loose . . . Shetland detective Jimmy Perez knows it will be a difficult homecoming when he returns to Fair Isle to introduce his fiancée to his parents. With the autumn storms raging, the island is cut off from the rest of the world. Then...Paperback$3000Elsewhere:$3800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New ReleaseRed Bones
Red Bones is the third Shetland novel featuring detective Jimmy Perez. Sometimes the dead won't stay buried... When a young archaeologist uncovers a set of human remains, the island settlers are intrigued. Is it an ancient find—or a more contemporary mystery? Then an elderly woman is shot in what appears to be a tragic accident in the middle of the...Paperback$3000Elsewhere:$3800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New ReleaseThe Last to Drown
Praise for Noelle W. Ihli: 'Hands down one of my favourite reads of the year' - FREIDA MCFADDEN 'A true classic in the genre' - LISA JEWELL 'A propulsive story that haunts and mesmerizes' - KARIN SLAUGHTER FIVE DAYS. TWENTY STRANGERS. NO PHONE SIGNAL. The rafting trip was supposed to be the adventure of a lifetime. But now that Kaia's...Paperback$3000Elsewhere:$3499Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today
Why buy from us?
Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!
Service & Delivery
Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.
Auckland Bookstore
We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.
Our Gifting Service
Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.
Crime & Thriller lists from the team
Explore our curated lists from our heroes to find your next read!
