Here Comes a Chopper (1946)
My review:
'It's all horribly mad, and yet horribly sane, too.'
A good recovery from the impenetrable books of the previous three years, Here Comes a Chopper is one of Mitchell's few attempts at the country-house genre—and quite a successful one. The narrative is straight-forward and competent, every chapter advances the plot and contains a clue, but, at the same time, it is a daft comedy-of-manners. The list of characters includes two mad-women, as well as a train-driver with 'the Gift'; the splendid dialogue is often rather ghoulish, yet always with a great deal of humour:
"'I say, Great-Aunt Bradley!" [George, a boy, not the chauffeur] exclaimed. 'Immense excitement! Mr. Lingfield has been discovered ina quarry, and someone has cut off both his feet!'
"'You are misinformed, George,' said Mrs. Bradley. 'A person unknown (so far) has been found in Baker's Spinney, and something—we suspect the down train—has cut off his head.'
"'Oh,' said George, dashed, 'that's nothing. It happened to a chap's sister's fiancé at school. It could happen to you or to me. But, feet—that's rather different. I rather wish it were feet.'
One of the most noticeable instances of the comedy-of-manners is where a party of twelve sits at table for two hours, owing to the hostess's delusion that there are thirteen at table. Superstition is important in the novel, both as a plot device (it is used to bring the young couple, whose complicated romance is very well-handled, to the house), and as a source of humour. The mystery itself, turning on problems of identification and timing, is well-handled and plotted (until the end, when it all becomes very muddled), but the solution is obvious, and the identity of the midnight prowler (unless it is the murderer?) is never fully resolved. It is nice to return to Wandles Parva—the events that occur there are very thrilling, and very clever to have the "villains" revealed as members of Mrs. Bradley's own household. Throughout, Mitchell's writing is stylish and impeccable, full of references to the Metaphysical Poets—fitting, in a novel whose theme is love.