Inspector Cockrill has finally booked a holiday, destined for the Mediterranean with a motley crew of fellow vacationers. By the time they have reached the island of San Juan el Pirata, the tour group is a bubbling pot of rivalries and tension between friends and lovers, threatening to boil over into violence. Beneath the beating summer sun, as [seven] holidaymakers lounge and swim on the beach under Cockrill's watch, the [eighth] of their number is slain. With reason to suspect that it must have been one of the suspects on the beach, Cockrill must face up to what appears to be an impossible case, as the island's own police forces manoeuvre to ensnare whichever suspect will help close the case most quickly. First published in 1956, Brand's classic novel skewers the package holiday experience while unravelling one of the most audacious and devilish mysteries in the history of the genre.

“Written with much ingenuity, gaiety of colour and bright, joyful malice ... Christianna Brand’s readers are also taken on holiday in Tour de Force.”

 

– Julian Symons in the Times Literary Supplement, 1955

Christianna Brand (1907-1988) 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.