Suddenly At His Residence
(1947)
My review:
Brand usually turned out creditable work; she does not here. She populates the clichéd country house with a large family whose vocabulary is liberally peppered with ‘Dear’ or ‘Darling!,’ a condiment this reader finds offensive to his palate. The patriarch is murdered on the eve of changing his will—a thoroughly clichéd situation. She uses two impossible crimes—both ‘no footprints’—which are solved by variations on a rejected ploy from Carr’s White Priory Murders and on the gimmick from He Wouldn’t Kill Patience. What irritates most is the twee and over-sentimental tone, always very arch, except when it degenerates into simply blatant melodrama.