Lion in the Cellar

Prepare to be both chilled and diverted by 'The funniest lady you ever knew' Christianna Brand

Other than her Uncle George, Sukie was the only member of the notorious Heap family who was still at large. Her great-grandfather, who had invented a particularly nasty machine gun, was immortalised in wax at Madame Tussaud's Chamber of Horrors. So was Sukie's grandmother, who one day had taken an axe and disposed of five of her neighbours. Sukie's mother later tried her hand at arson and was sent to a mental institution.

Sukie defiantly explained, as had her mother before her, that insanity did not run in the family. The Heaps were definitely being maligned. But, naturally, when Mr Bentley turned up dead with a bloody axe at his side, Sukie's husband figured she was at last taking up the family trade

'A charnel-house frolic' The Spectator