Heads You Lose cover art

Heads You Lose

Inspector Cockrill Mysteries Series, Book 1

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Heads You Lose

By: Christianna Brand
Narrated by: Derek Perkins
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About this listen

In the English countryside, one of the well-mannered guests at Pigeonsford Estate may be a murderer in this series debut by an Edgar Award-nominated author.

As war rages in Europe, the citizens of London flee to the country. At Pigeonsford, a group of guests plays cards, drinks tea, and acts polite - but Grace Morland knows the strong emotions that lurk beneath the placid social surface. She's painfully in love with Stephen Pendock, the squire of Pigeonsford, but Pendock's smitten with young beauty Francesca Hart. One afternoon, Fran debuts a new hat, and Grace's jealousy gets the better of her. She exclaims, "I wouldn't be seen dead in a ditch in a thing like that!" She will soon be proven wrong. Grace is found dead with the hat on her head - and her head removed from her neck. To the scene comes the incomparable Inspector Cockrill, who finds that far more than petty jealousy lies beneath this hideous murder.

©1988 Christianna Brand; Foreword copyright 1993 by Jessica Mann (P)2021 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books Amateur Sleuths Cosy Mystery Traditional Detectives

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All stars
Most relevant
It felt like this book was written in the 1950s so strange was it’s approach to plot (red herrings, info coming from nowhere and dreams) and it’s grotesque characters. I rather hoped more of them might get bumped off. There’s an older man who has been in love with the extremely vapid young woman since she was literally a child, her sister who claims to be obsessed by her own husband (the husband is Jewish in case you miss all the dodgy and downright anti-Semitic references ). The detective does nothing and even the dog is irritating. Just bizarre!

Very odd

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I love to listen to “cozy” detective stories, especially because I spend many hours driving alone, and this book seemed to match my taste and expectations.
However, the story was a bit bizzarre and not very engaging.

I don’t understand what was the purpose of having the chain smoking, grumpy detective, since he seems to be always present, but not that useful.
I didn’t dislike the book, but the ending was a little abrupt and the characters too cliché.
Once I finished the book I learned that it was written in 1988, so maybe it just hasn’t aged well, but I’m not going to listen to any other book in this series.
The reader did a great job, his performance his excellent, unfortunately the story was just average for me.

This book was highly recommended, but I didn’t enjoy it much.

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Nice comfortable listen,with a surprising twist.
Never saw the end result coming - made a nice change.

A Cosy Mystery

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Death near the house with no footprints due to snow Love class are involved Clever set up

Was the death due to someone in the house

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An enjoyable listen with plenty of twists and turns. A nice variety of characters - although some are so annoying you long for them to be the murderer's next victim. Derek Perkins does a good job at creating and distinguishing the cast but, if you know Inspector Cockrill from the film of Green For Danger you'll always expect to hear Alastair Sim's voice.
There's a good deal of casual anti-Semitism which is, no doubt, reflective of the strata of society in which it is set but somehow surprises us in a book published in 1944.

Intricate plotting and a mixed bag of characters

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But why have a male narrator when a large part of the charm of these novels comes from Brand’s witty authorial voice??? Inspector Cockerill is not the main character!

The narrator is OK but doesn’t really convey the nuance of character - so although these recordings are better than nothing, they feel like a missed opportunity.

Great to have these Christianna Brand novels on audio

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You're in the hands of both a master storyteller as well as a perfect reader for the story

You are in the hands of a master

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I agree with a former reviewer that it should have been a female voice narration.

An entertaining, easy listen.

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I listened to this with increasing horror - the anti-semitism present throughout this book should have meant that, either it went out of print, or that the comments were removed. The narrator is also at fault for agreeing to read these parts of the text.

It’s all the more shocking given the date of publication - 1941- considering the horrific events of WW2. It’s evidence of the deeply held anti-Semitic beliefs of the British upper class at the time. (The credits at the end say 1988, but that’s when the book was republished/recopyrighted following Brand’s death.)

The story itself is ridiculous, (as is the continuing affection for the murderer).

I wish I hadn’t continued with it.

Appalling anti-semitism

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The story was ridiculous. Supposedly set in WW2 but the description of behaviours and the terrible narration gave it an Edwardian outdated feel. Boring.

Uninspiring

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