panI reaaaally don't rate Brand as highly as some people do. There's something so mean about her writing, I think. Not just the homophobia, but the way she writes about unattractive or less intelligent or poor women.
I'm not the biggest fan of Christianna Brand in general, but oof, the homophobia in this one. And I don't remember Charlesworth being quite such an ass in the other books he features in (though I don't like him).
Yeah, I'm mostly just reading this to be completionist.
so-soThis is not Brand's best book, but it has a lot to interest a social historian. She is great at exploring the group dynamics of working women and here she focuses on shop girls. Who she shows they are a more interesting group than their vapid stereotype.
She does not deal with her homosexual character as fairly and the homophobia is vile.
Mystery itself is ill-paced and mediocre.
A new to me Golden Age British mystery writer. Brand uses her experience as a salesgirl in this first novel (1941) which she based on “a fantasy of murdering an irritating coworker”.
My thoughts in order:
1. 🫢 OMG.
2. I‘m glad I don‘t work in her HR.
3. Did they even have HR back then?
4. Hope she kept that bit to herself for awhile and didn‘t share it til she left.
#jessreads2022
🐈⬛ 📸 Lola Cat cameo
Death in High Heels | 
