AN OVERVIEW OF GLADYS MITCHELL'S DETECTIVE FICTION

PERIOD I: 1929 - 1932

Gladys Mitchell's first novell, Speedy Death, appeared in 1929. It has since become a classic, but at the time that it was published, it concerned itself principally with poking fun at the classic mould - a practice she would follow for the next three years.

Speedy Death is a parody of the country-house murder, with all manner of events: naked men found drowned in bathtubs becoming women, midnight attacks, and insanity. The entire form is put to severe scrutiny in the fact that the detective - Mrs. Bradley, a reptilian psychiatrist - is also the murderer - she is put on trial, acquitted, and then confesses to her son, and to everyone else involved in the case.

The Mystery of a Butcher's Shop followed in the same year, satirising Agatha Christie and the village murder. The victim, found hung up in a butcher's lock-up shop, turns out to have been murdered twice, and the characters are the typical clichés of detective fiction: domineering elderly woman, her nephew, the absent-minded vicar and his charming daughter, and a pair of suspicious artists. However, none of these characters act in exactly the way the experienced reader expects, and the solution again neatly turns the genre on its head.

The Longer Bodies (1930) is a distinct disappointment, despite the diverting events occurring in the tale. The murder is committed for no motive whatsoever; and the murderer is a silly ass. However, the ludicrous nature of the crime is very funny, and the characters (in particular, the three old women, Mrs. Bradley, Mrs. Puddequet, and the Scottish cook) are lively caricatures. Despite some good attacks on the Realist School's methods of detection (alibi-checking, and so forth), not a very good satire on the country-house novel.

The Saltmarsh Murders (1932) is one of Mitchell's best books: a hilarious classic, set in the unfortunate village of Saltmarsh, boasting smuggling, adultery, incest, and several interesting forms of lunacy. The murderer is well-hidden, and the entire thing is a first-class parody of Agatha Christie's Murder at the Vicarage (1930).

PERIOD II: 1934 - 1941

Periods II and IV are my favourite Gladys Mitchell periods. Period II features Gladys Mitchell's imagination and writing style at its best - the books are rich (Come Away, Death, 1937, was her longest book), and complex; her grasp of interesting settings was at its best; and her sense of storytelling is at its most powerful, often involving religion. It is distinct from Period I in that she has stopped satirising the genre, but is experimenting with the form, turning out several startlingly imaginative masterpieces. The keynote of the genre is maximalism, as opposed to the minimalist plotting of Period V.

Death at the Opera (1934) is a particular favourite of mine for two reasons: firstly, it was the first Gladys Mitchell novel I ever read; and secondly, it involves a performance of The Mikado. Mrs. Bradley is called in, and investigates one of Mitchell's most complex plots - three separate murder cases, linked only by an overdose of drowning.

The Devil at Saxon Wall (1935) is perhaps too complex, but the setting is Gladys Mitchell's best: a witchcraft-infested, very rural village in Hampshire. The plot involves perhaps too many impersonations and false identities - "when everyone is somebody else, then no-one's anybody!" (apologies to Gilbert & Sullivan) - but the witchcraft and paganism is first-class. The book invokes God and the Devil in person - the murderer is seen as being the infernal manifestation, his death causing the drought to vanish - the rain is "an avenging cataract of fury, relentless, unceasing, terrifyingly noisy and triumphant; they stood there listening to it, awe-stricken in the face of the terrible mercy of God."

Come Away, Death (1937) continues the religious motif of Period II, as the Greek gods Aesculapius and Iacchus manifest themselves at various times during the pilgrimage made by a group of archaeologists under the guidance of the mentally unbalanced Sir Rudri Hopkinson. The book is my favourite Gladys Mitchell, perhaps because of my life-long interest in Greek mythology, or perhaps because of the power of some of the scenes - the part at Mycenae has to be read to be believed.

St. Peter's Finger (1938), set in a convent school, is deeply religious, and focusses on the themes of redemption and repentance. The murder is committed out of dreadful altruistic reasons, and serves to shed a light on the reason for religion. The nuns and murderer are closely related, and both merge towards the end of the novel. Incidentally, the book is one of Mitchell's closest approximations to the classic 'whodunnit' form.

When Last I Died (1941) is the last book of Period II, and is one of Mitchell's best. The setting, a haunted house, is handled in a novel way without any of the screaming heebie-jeebies John Dickson Carr would have had (try his The Man Who Could Not Shudder for an idea of how not to do it, and The Plague Court Murders, as Carter Dickson, for an idea of how to do it) - in fact, it resembles more M.R. James in its careful understatement, allowing the reader to fill in the mental blanks himself. The crime involves fake séances and diaries, and several unusual murder methods, before Mrs. Bradley, applying the principles of historiography to a number of documents, solves the crime.

PERIOD III: 1942 - 1948

Period II introduces Mrs. Bradley's secretary, Laura Menzies (later Gavin), and features a number of Croftsian thrillers involving ancient religious practices. The settings of the books are topographically precise, often taking place out-of-doors; and, while the period does contain some of Mitchell's best books, it is, however, more minimalistic than either the previous or the following periods.

Laurels are Poison (1942) is the first novel to feature Laura Menzies, and is set at a training college. Laura's friends, Kitty Trevelyan and Alice Boorman, a rather annoyingly wet pair, are also introduced, and crop up in several of the 1960s novels, before vanishing completely. The book is rather incoherent, and the murderer's identity fairly obvious, but the entire thing is quite entertaining.

The Worsted Viper (1943), The Dancing Druids (1948), the Period IV offering Faintley Speaking (1954), and the period V offering Skeleton Island (1967) all contain elements in common. They are all 'gang' stories, in which Mrs. Bradley and Laura travel to a precise topographical location - somehow connected to the seaside - and unmask a gang of smugglers. Viper and Druids both have religious ceremonies as the cover for the smuggling operation - witchcraft in Viper, and druidic ceremonies in Druids; and Mrs. Bradley and Laura secretly infiltrate those ceremonies in order to unmask the gang's leaders. None of these books, with the exception of Druids, are recommended.

The Rising of the Moon (1945) is the best novel of the period, a semi-autobiographical novel set in the town of Brentford. In a pattern which would be repeated in the later novels Late, Late in the Evening (1976) and The Greenstone Griffins (1983), Mrs. Bradley takes a back seat, while two children (one child in Griffins) has a series of adventures in the village, pitting them against a pair of greedy adults. However, these books bear no resemblance to Enid Blyton (thank God!), and are _not_ cosies.

PERIOD IV: 1949 - 1959

As mentioned above, Period IV is one of my favourite Gladys Mitchell periods. It returns to the zestfully written, bizarre and complex novels of Period II, but must be distinguished from that period in that it has Period III as a buffer, features Laura Menzies and later Dame Beatrice (in 12 Horses and the Hangman's Noose), and the books are closer to the 'whodunnit' than at any other period.

Tom Brown's Body (1949), Groaning Spinney (1950), The Devil's Elbow (1951), The Echoing Strangers (1952), and Merlin's Furlong (1953) show Gladys Mitchell's imagination in better form since Period III. Ghosts, lunatics, identical twins, and witchcraft (in Tom Brown and Furlong) are all featured; and the murderer's identity is quite surprising in Elbow and Furlong (the only books of this quartet I possess). The witchcraft in Tom Brown's Body is the best in her novels, with the exception of The Devil at Saxon Wall.

For remarks on Faintley Speaking, see above.

Watson's Choice (1955) is a rather over-rated novel. Several critics view it as the be-all and end-all of her books, but it struck me as being rather poorly plotted, and rather drab. The Sherlock Holmes business is quite good, but the whole thing falls together towards the end.

In 12 Horses and the Hangman's Noose (1956), Mrs. Bradley becomes Dame Beatrice. More will be forthcoming on this novel when I read it.

The 23rd Man (1957) is an especial pleasure, involving as it does mummified kings, several murder cases in Britain, extradition treaties, and bandits, on an island in the Canaries - the island of Hombres Muertos (the island of dead men). The entire thing is as complex as Tom Brown's Body (1949), but better organised.

PERIOD V: 1960 - 1970

This period is Mitchell's most minimalistic, even more so than Period III. Murderers are known from the beginning or halfway through, and the plots involve too much travelling. The books are also Mitchell's closest approximation to the cosy, with too much emphasis on Laura's marital status and child-rearing problems, and her friendship with Kitty and Alice. Note that most of the settings are archaeological or athletic clubs.

Say It With Flowers (1960) and The Nodding Canaries (1961) both begin with the discovery of a modern corpse in an ancient place associated with either death or religion - a recurring theme in Mitchell's books (e.g., The Mystery of a Butcher's Shop (1929), Come Away, Death (1937), The Dancing Druids (1948), The Whispering Knights (1980)). The murderer's identity is known from very early on in both books, and characterisation is rather flat.

Death of a Delft Blue (1964) suffers from an overdose of travelling. Too much of the book is taken up with Laura's journeys hither-and-thither in Norfolk and in Holland, and the Dutch genealogy gets rather dull. Some good ideas, but not enough done with them.

3 Quick and 5 Dead (1968) is one of Mitchell's cosiest novels: Laura, pregnant again, keeps stumbling on dead bodies (none of whom after the second victim have any name or identity), and too much of the book involves Dame Beatrice's household, and the possibility of her French servants being murdered. The murderer recalls her final novel, The Crozier Pharaohs (1984).

Dance to Your Daddy (1969) is Mitchell's best book of Period V, more complex than the other books of the period. Realising that she has taken her books over the 'cosy' boundary, Mitchell takes a dramatic plunge, and produces a startling parody of the 'maiden-in-peril' genre. Not at all a 'cosy', and quite complex.

PERIOD VI: 1971 - 1980

The most noticeable thing about Period VI is the amount of travelling done. The travelling group is often led by a rather incompetent man or woman, usually either the victim or murderer, and, owing to internal disagreements and malicious pranks played by one or more of the members of the group, the travelling party breaks up, and scatters to various hotels throughout England, necessitating Mrs. Bradley and Laura's serial interviewing of them. The victim is usually a rather unpleasant female.

In Lament for Leto (1971), a decidedly inferior sequel to Come Away, Death, the setting is Greece, with a party of amateur archaeologists visiting shrines dedicated to Apollo, and an unpleasant novelist is pushed off a cliff. In Winking at the Brim, the travelling group visits Scotland in order to find the Loch Ness Monster, and an acidulated spinster is promptly poisoned. In Noonday and Night (1977), a coach-tour (c.f. The Devil's Elbow, 1951) meets with mishaps as the driver-couriers are dispatched into the after-life; in Wraiths and Changelings (1978), the unpleasant organiser is battered to death while on a ghost hunt; and in The Whispering Knights (1980), a morbid spinster, dying of a terminal illness, is strangled to death while visiting a series of stone circles.

Another interesting feature of the period is the fact that many of the books are, in fact, sequels to earlier novels, either in actuality or in theme / setting. Lament for Leto, as mentioned above, is a sequel to Come Away, Death; The Murder of Busy Lizzie (1973), with its island setting and smugglers, recalls Faintley Speaking and Skeleton Island; the convent setting of Convent on Styx (1975) was first used in St. Peter's Finger; Late, Late in the Evening (1976), Mitchell's fiftieth book and featuring Mrs. Bradley rather than Dame Beatrice, reuses themes and ideas from The Rising of the Moon; Noonday and Night's coach-tours were used in The Devil's Elbow; Fault in the Structure (1977), the best book of the period, bears some resemblance to Death at the Opera in the murder at a theatrical performance; and stone circles crop up both in The Whispering Knights and in The Dancing Druids (1948).

PERIOD VII: 1981 - 1984

In several respects, Period VII is an attempt to write a 'typical' Gladys Mitchell novel of the 1930s and 1940s. The period features witchcraft, buried treasure, mutilated corpses, mysterious objects with an overtone of the supernatural, and lunatics popping up at Mrs. Bradley's surgery.

Here Lies Gloria Mundy (1982) and The Greenstone Griffins (1983) bear that supposition out. In Griffins, we have Mrs. Bradley rather than Dame Beatrice, and the setting is the early 1920s, with the detection of When Last I Died repeated. In Gloria Mundy, it might as well be Mrs. Bradley, for the book is essentially a Mrs. Bradley novel - a dead woman is seen alive again in a London dress-shop, the book has a strong flavour of witchcraft, we have a gloriously Mitchellian eccentric old woman (the magnificent Great-Aunt Eglantine), and the dream sequence at the end is remarkably powerful, recalling the endings of such Period II works as The Devil at Saxon Wall.

Death of a Burrowing Mole (1982) bears a striking resemblance to the Reggie Fortune novel The Bishop's Crime (1940), in its emphasis on buried treasure and the deaths of minor criminals. However, the alibi business is over-done, and the entire thing falls to pieces.

Mitchell's novels fall into seven distinct categories: the satirical novels of 1929 - 32; the rich and powerful complexities of 1934 - 41; the Laura Menzies minimalist thrillers of 1942 - 48; the zestfully bizarre works of 1949 - 59; the minimalist 'cosies' of 1960 - 69; the essentially guide-book novels of 1970 - 80; and the final return to glorious Mitchell of 1981 - 84.