Death of Jezebel
novel by Christianna Brand

Death of Jezebel is a 1948 mystery crime novel by the British author Christianna Brand. It is the fourth entry in the series featuring the fictional police detective Inspector Cockerill, and sees him working alongside Inspector Charlesworth a character from Brand's debut novel Death in High Heels.
Synopsis
Isabel Drew, a beautiful and arrogant actress, has widely been known as Jezebel since she drove her best friend's fiancé to kill himself. While performing in a medieval extravaganza in London she and other cast members receive letters threatening to kill them.
References
Bibliography
Bargainnier, Earl F. & Dove George N. Cops and Constables: American and British Fictional Policemen. Popular Press, 1986.
Gaines, Janet Howe . Music in the Old Bones: Jezebel Through the Ages. SIU Press, 1999.
Reilly, John M. Twentieth Century Crime & Mystery Writers.
“Death of Jezebel” enters the record as novel by Christianna Brand. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Death, Jezebel and novel can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3863255. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1948, 1986 and 1999.
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This entry incorporates text from “Death of Jezebel” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.