The Rising of the Moon (1945)
My review:
'At what point the people in our town began to dread the nights of the full moon I do not know, but the whispers, the rumours and the panic gradually grew.'
One of the most over-rated mysteries (for it cannot be called a 'detective story' proper) of the previous century. Despite the pervasive first-class atmosphere, the plot is very weak, the ending so opaque as to be totally confusing: If the murderous woman is responsible for the Deptford murders, what of the man on the bridge? If that man is the murderer, then what of the woman's Deptford past? And what of the cut faces suddenly mentioned at the end of the book? None of these make any sense. Neither does the geography of the town, which will have the reader thoroughly confused. The much touted child narrator is a sexually perverted juvenile delinquent, and unbelievable—why didn't Mitchell make him as credible as Aubrey Harringay in The Mystery of a Butcher's Shop? To make matters worse, Mrs. Bradley remains in the background throughout the story, which perhaps accounts for the weakness of the plot.
Note that the setting is Brentford, where Mitchell was brought up and where she taught as an adult. The Greenstone Griffins, a much better book, also features Brentford (under an assumed name). Both books are semi-autobiographical.