100,000+ Books, Games & Puzzles in-stock πŸ‡³πŸ‡Ώ

Overnight NZ-wide delivery on in-stock orders πŸš€

Suddenly at His Residence

A Mystery in Kent
3.52 goodreads logo

Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.

Check link for latest rating.
( 822 ratings, 130 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Suddenly at His Residence by Christianna Brand is a thrilling mystery entwined with supernatural elements. The story unfolds when a wealthy man dies unexpectedly at his family’s estate, leading to complex family dynamics and hidden secrets unveiled. Inspector Cockrill is called in to decipher cryptic clues and supernatural hints, as all potential heirs face suspicion in this gripping whodunit.
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$2799
AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 4-6 weeks

Found a better price? Request a price match

Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

If you enjoy intricate whodunits with a spooky touch, this thrilling novel will captivate you with its masterful blend of suspense, supernatural elements, and clever twists. Delve into a gripping narrative filled with unexpected turns that keep you guessing until the very end.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

Also known by its American title The Crooked Wreath, this classic mystery novel from 1947 is loaded with sharply drawn characters and devilish misdirection, all capped by one of the genre's most thrilling denouements.

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

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 his heirs, March seems poised to deny all of them their inheritance and heads out to his lodge to make arrangements, only to be discovered dead the next morning with strychnine in his blood.

With evidence at the crime scene suggesting that nobody could possibly have entered the lodge to murder March, Inspector Cockrill, the "Terror of Kent," has the challenge of finding any plausible solution for this impossible crime before death comes to darken the doors of Swanswater once more.

Also known by its American title The Crooked Wreath, this classic mystery novel from 1947 is loaded with sharply drawn characters and devilish misdirection, all capped by one of the genre's most thrilling denouements.

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 manβ€”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
    $2500
    Elsewhere:
    $2699
    Available
    Ships 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
    $2799
    Available
    Ships 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
    $2799
    Available
    Ships 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
    $2799
    Available
    Ships 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
    $2799
    Available
    Ships 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 insideβ€”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
    $2799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Capital Crimes
    With its fascinating mix of peopleβ€”rich and poor, British and foreign, worthy and suspiciousβ€”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
    $2999
    Available
    Ships 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
    $2799
    Available
    Ships 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
    $2799
    Available
    Ships 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 addressβ€”a strange house perched atop a mountain which matches all of the descriptions in the lettersβ€”nobody has even heard of 'Amista'. As Katinka begins to...
    Paperback
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • 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
    $2799
    Available
    Ships 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
    $2799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780712354233

Publisher: British Library Publishing

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 10 June 2023

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: British Library Publishing

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Width: 130.0mm

Height: 190.0mm

Weight: 250g

Pages: 240

About the Author

**CHRISTIANNA BRAND **was the pen-name of Mary Christianna Milne (19071988), a crime writer who was born in British Malaya. She is best known for her mystery novels featuring Inspector Cockrill, though she also wrote several acclaimed short story collections and authored the Nurse Matilda book series for children.

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 centuriesβ€”there are whodunits, whydunits and howdunits, including locked-room puzzles, detective stories without detectives, and crimes with a limited choice of...
    Paperback
    $2300
    Elsewhere:
    $2500
    Available
    Ships 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 addressβ€”a strange house perched atop a mountain which matches all of the descriptions in the lettersβ€”nobody has even heard of 'Amista'. As Katinka begins to...
    Paperback
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • 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
    $2799
    Available
    Ships 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
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • London Particular
    "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...
    Paperback
    $2799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • 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
    $2799
    Available
    Ships 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...
    Paperback
    Sold 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...
    Paperback
    Sold Out

More from Horror & Supernatural

View all
  • The Buffalo Hunter Hunter
    The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Etsy Beaucarne follows the journey of an academic striving to achieve professional success by uncovering hidden family history. When a journal written in 1912 by her grandfather, Arthur Beaucarne, a Lutheran pastor, is discovered within a wall during renovations, Etsy sees it as her opportunity to publish and secure tenure. As she delves into the...
    Paperback
    $2299
    Elsewhere:
    $2899
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Shirl's Picks
    Strange Houses
    A sinister hidden room. A dead space between two walls. A sealed cellar. A child's face glimpsed at a window. Every house hides secrets. But some secrets are far darker than others. More than a million readers have discovered the terrible truth behind these strange houses. Now it's your turn.
    By Uketsu
    Paperback
    $3000
    Elsewhere:
    $3699
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    Molka
    'Brutal and unflinching...You won't be able to look away as this book cuts you to pieces.' β€” Kylie Lee Baker, author of Bat Eater 'Combining feminist fury with creeping horror... Fans of Bunny will love this.' β€” Eve Kellman, author of How to Kill a Guy in Ten Ways The new novel by the Sunday Times bestselling author of The...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • There Is No Antimemetics Division
    Mind-bending science fiction about antimemes: ideas that attack memory, identity, and the fabric of reality itself. An antimeme is an entity with self-censoring properties. Some are benign, but others, less so... These entities can feed on your most cherished memories, the things that make you youβ€”and you'll never even know anything changed. And they aren't just feeding on us. They're...
    By qntm
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    (2)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • The End of the World as We Know It
    Since its initial publication in 1978, The Stand has been considered No. 1 bestselling author and master storyteller Stephen King's seminal masterpiece of apocalyptic fiction, with millions of copies sold and adapted twice for television. Although there are other extraordinary works exploring the unravelling of human society, none have been as influential as this iconic novel - with generations of...
    Paperback
    $2999
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Home Before Dark
    Clever, twisty, and altogether spine-chilling... A deliciously terrifying story. You'll want to read this one after dark, ideally with the wind whistling in the eaves and a window banging somewhere just out of reach. But keep the light switch handy. You just might need it. - Ruth Ware, Book of the Month What was it like? Living in that house....
    Paperback
    $2200
    Elsewhere:
    $2499
    (3)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    Trad Wife
    Your favourite influencer is about to be exposed . . . A deliciously sinister novel from three-time Bram Stoker award-winner Sarah Langan. Every day, millions watch Mia Wright, the "trad wife" queen, on her idyllic 300-acre farm. With her handsome husband, seven perfect children, and a life of from-scratch meals and pastoral bliss, she's an icon of modern femininity. But...
    Paperback
    $3000
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Horrorstor
    It's a classic old-fashioned haunted house story - set in a big box Swedish furniture superstore. Designed like a retail catalog, Horrorstor offers a creepy read with mass appealβ€”perfect for Halloween tables! From the New York Times best-selling author of The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires comes a hilarious and terrifying haunted house story in a thoroughly contemporary...
    Paperback
    $2700
    Elsewhere:
    $2999
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Frankenstein
    One of the BBC's '100 Novels That Shaped Our World' HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics. Frankenstein β€˜The rain pattered dismally against the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open…’ Victor Frankenstein’s monster is stitched...
    Paperback
    $1299
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Thinner
    Thinner, by Stephen King writing as Richard Bachman, is a chilling tale of one man's descent into a nightmarish curse. Billy Halleck is a successful attorney living in Connecticut with his loving wife and daughter. Overweight but content, Billy's life takes a horrifying turn after a chance encounter with an old Romani woman. Driving through town, Billy accidentally hits her...
    Paperback
    $2500
    Elsewhere:
    $2999
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • The Shining
    The Shining by Stephen King is a spine-chilling masterpiece that delves into the horrifying and supernatural. The story revolves around the Torrance family: Jack, Wendy, and their five-year-old son, Danny, who possesses an extraordinary psychic ability, referred to by the hotel's cook, Mr Hallorann, as "shining". This gift allows Danny to see the horrific past and foreboding future of the...
    Paperback
    $2999
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • On Sale
    11% off
    The Arachnid (The Poisoner #2)
    Paperback
    $3400
    Elsewhere:
    $4500
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow

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

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

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

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.