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Mrs. Bradley #8
Come Away, Death
Book by Mitchell, Gladys
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1937
20 people are currently reading
175 people want to read
About the author
Gladys Mitchell
96 books141 followersAka Malcolm Torrie, Stephen Hockaby.
Born in Cowley, Oxford, in 1901, Gladys Maude Winifred Mitchell was the daughter of market gardener James Mitchell, and his wife, Annie.
She was educated at Rothschild School, Brentford and Green School, Isleworth, before attending Goldsmiths College and University College, London from 1919-1921.
She taught English, history and games at St Paul's School, Brentford, from 1921-26, and at St Anne's Senior Girls School, Ealing until 1939.
She earned an external diploma in European history from University College in 1926, beginning to write her novels at this point. Mitchell went on to teach at a number of other schools, including the Brentford Senior Girls School (1941-50), and the Matthew Arnold School, Staines (1953-61). She retired to Corfe Mullen, Dorset in 1961, where she lived until her death in 1983.
Although primarily remembered for her mystery novels, and for her detective creation, Mrs. Bradley, who featured in 66 of her novels, Mitchell also published ten children's books under her own name, historical fiction under the pseudonym Stephen Hockaby, and more detective fiction under the pseudonym Malcolm Torrie. She also wrote a great many short stories, all of which were first published in the Evening Standard.
She was awarded the Crime Writers' Association Silver Dagger Award in 1976.
Born in Cowley, Oxford, in 1901, Gladys Maude Winifred Mitchell was the daughter of market gardener James Mitchell, and his wife, Annie.
She was educated at Rothschild School, Brentford and Green School, Isleworth, before attending Goldsmiths College and University College, London from 1919-1921.
She taught English, history and games at St Paul's School, Brentford, from 1921-26, and at St Anne's Senior Girls School, Ealing until 1939.
She earned an external diploma in European history from University College in 1926, beginning to write her novels at this point. Mitchell went on to teach at a number of other schools, including the Brentford Senior Girls School (1941-50), and the Matthew Arnold School, Staines (1953-61). She retired to Corfe Mullen, Dorset in 1961, where she lived until her death in 1983.
Although primarily remembered for her mystery novels, and for her detective creation, Mrs. Bradley, who featured in 66 of her novels, Mitchell also published ten children's books under her own name, historical fiction under the pseudonym Stephen Hockaby, and more detective fiction under the pseudonym Malcolm Torrie. She also wrote a great many short stories, all of which were first published in the Evening Standard.
She was awarded the Crime Writers' Association Silver Dagger Award in 1976.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews
January 4, 2021
I’ve read my second Mrs Bradley book, the first being Speedy Death, and I’m really appreciating how unusual a detective Mrs Bradley is! This is definitely a series to read if you’re looking for unconventional detectives from Golden Age writers.
In Come Away, Death, Mrs Bradley follows the husband of a school friend as he brings a group around a pilgrimage across Greece, trying to recreate ancient rituals. Mrs Bradley is very useful, mostly in making sure the three young boys (they’re about 10 to 13) don’t get into too much trouble, and also partly because at the end of the trip, the severed head of the most annoying member is found. And of course going to the police would be too much trouble, so Mrs Bradley to the rescue it is.
The first thing to note about the book is that the murder takes place rather late, in the second half of the book, in fact! If you think of this as a travelogue of eccentric British people with a murder popping up at the end, I think you’d enjoy the book more. I suspect that if I was waiting for the murder, I would be a lot more impatient with this book – as it is, I made it halfway through and was enjoying myself before I realised that this was supposed to be a murder mystery and wondered when someone would die (and who).
The mystery itself is wrapped up rather speedily, mostly because Mrs Bradley is a psychiatrist and after travelling with the group for so long, has a good grasp of character. Most of the other detectives, like Poirot, come onto the scene after the murder has been committed and need to take some time to get to know everyone, whereas Mrs Bradley was there from the start. So all she really needs to do is to find the evidence that confirms her suspicions.
The only part of the book that gave me pause were the descriptions of Greece. I’m definitely not a historian so I don’t know if it’s as backwards as the characters make it sound, if Mitchell was poking fun at British attitudes towards foreign countries, or if this was a reflection of how she truly felt. I really hope it’s the second option.
Overall, I found this to be a fun read and Mrs Bradley to be a refreshing change from most detectives. If you’re in the mood for some Golden Age mystery and you want to try something different, definitely check this out. I am looking forward to reading more Mrs Bradley mysteries.
This review was first posted at Eustea Reads
In Come Away, Death, Mrs Bradley follows the husband of a school friend as he brings a group around a pilgrimage across Greece, trying to recreate ancient rituals. Mrs Bradley is very useful, mostly in making sure the three young boys (they’re about 10 to 13) don’t get into too much trouble, and also partly because at the end of the trip, the severed head of the most annoying member is found. And of course going to the police would be too much trouble, so Mrs Bradley to the rescue it is.
The first thing to note about the book is that the murder takes place rather late, in the second half of the book, in fact! If you think of this as a travelogue of eccentric British people with a murder popping up at the end, I think you’d enjoy the book more. I suspect that if I was waiting for the murder, I would be a lot more impatient with this book – as it is, I made it halfway through and was enjoying myself before I realised that this was supposed to be a murder mystery and wondered when someone would die (and who).
The mystery itself is wrapped up rather speedily, mostly because Mrs Bradley is a psychiatrist and after travelling with the group for so long, has a good grasp of character. Most of the other detectives, like Poirot, come onto the scene after the murder has been committed and need to take some time to get to know everyone, whereas Mrs Bradley was there from the start. So all she really needs to do is to find the evidence that confirms her suspicions.
The only part of the book that gave me pause were the descriptions of Greece. I’m definitely not a historian so I don’t know if it’s as backwards as the characters make it sound, if Mitchell was poking fun at British attitudes towards foreign countries, or if this was a reflection of how she truly felt. I really hope it’s the second option.
Overall, I found this to be a fun read and Mrs Bradley to be a refreshing change from most detectives. If you’re in the mood for some Golden Age mystery and you want to try something different, definitely check this out. I am looking forward to reading more Mrs Bradley mysteries.
This review was first posted at Eustea Reads
May 15, 2016
The eighth novel to feature Mrs Bradley is a corker, and a model of sustained suspense, set amongst rival archaeologists on an expedition in the environs of Athens, while also taking a journey through ancient ritual and pageant. While hoping to awaken the sleeping gods of the ancient world at Eleusis, Mycenae, and Ephesus, Sir Rudri Hopkinson and his arch rival, Alexander Currie are inadvertently the victims of far more mundane jealousies and hatreds. Mysterious figures appear, then disappear, then appear again... and was the really a manifestation of Artemis, racing through the ruined temple? This book might be genuinely confusing for anyone who didn't get a steady diet of Schliemann, Homer, Agamemnon and the Trojan War either in childhood or at school. Names like Pausanias and Aristophanes may not trip off your tongues. But if they do, or if you sit down with a copy of Schliemann's Mycenae (or even just re-watch Michael Wood's In Search of the Trojan War) and get a sense of these locations, this tale will sing. Recommended for Classicists. Others approach with an open, and academic, mind.
Full review to follow.
Full review to follow.
January 12, 2016
This could more accurately have been titled 'Come On Death.' The story seemed to unfold excruciatingly slowly -- and that knowing what I was letting myself in for!
This was a reread. The first time around, I wasn't used to Mrs. Bradley's methods, so I put my lack on enjoyment down to the fact that she didn't behave how I felt a detective should. Not so! My current appreciation for Mrs. Bradley and her unorthodox approach to crime could not survive the tedious recital of place and mischance. I don't see where Mitchell was going for large portions of the story, and was not invested enough in the characters to care.
This was a reread. The first time around, I wasn't used to Mrs. Bradley's methods, so I put my lack on enjoyment down to the fact that she didn't behave how I felt a detective should. Not so! My current appreciation for Mrs. Bradley and her unorthodox approach to crime could not survive the tedious recital of place and mischance. I don't see where Mitchell was going for large portions of the story, and was not invested enough in the characters to care.
June 8, 2015
A very slow build-up to the actual murder and far too many references that only Classical scholars could really appreciate means that this book lost my interest very early on. The plot, as with most 'Mrs Bradley' stories is farcical as are the characters but there is a good feel for the locations and a pervading sense of menace. Mitchell is clearly an intelligent writer who believes that she is writing for intelligent readers but I really think she overdid the cleverness in this book.
October 22, 2018
As intelligent written as ever. The story unfolded slowly, and the murder didn't take place until the last part of the book.
No idea whether one of the aims of this was to mock the foibles of the English abroad, but it offered a scathing, not unrealistic portrayal of the above.
No idea whether one of the aims of this was to mock the foibles of the English abroad, but it offered a scathing, not unrealistic portrayal of the above.
September 30, 2022
Where Christie uses her archaeological settings mainly as a metaphorical site for mirroring the work of detection, Mitchell does with “Come Away, Death” something very different: The novel takes the ritualistic and mythical aspects of its archaeological setting seriously, as do most of the protagonists. So the story develops almost like a mythical story or a Greek tragedy where a slight in the past motivates a fatal development towards inevitable death, where gods appear or possess human beings, - and it’s not always clear what is fake, what is genuin, what is the product of a slightly deranged mind. And if these differences even matter or matter in the way we normally think they matter. It’s a great setting for eccentric psychoanalyst sleuth Mrs. Mitchell, again with a charming boy detective as her young assistant. To enjoy the novel you don’t have to have a grasp of ancient Greek mythology and religion, but it helps a bit with your own detection.
CN: some ethnic slurs against Greeks.
CN: some ethnic slurs against Greeks.
March 5, 2021
The real mystery here is, "Why did the dear reader have to wait for over 200 pages of boring banter, Greek myth gloss, and 1930's British adolescent argot before the first and only murder was committed?" Agatha Christie she is not!
October 12, 2023
Awful. Possibly the worst Mitchell book I've written. If I could give minus stars, I would!
Where do I start?
The "story" is ridiculous - a man decides to up his entire extended family to recreate a journey to an "Ancient Greek ceremony" because by doing so, they'll somehow work out how some people disappeared after a similar ceremony a few thousand years ago. Huh?
It makes no sense that Mrs Bradley doesn't just call this out as nonsensical but moving on from the daft premise, the mystery is mysterious only in it's absence. Nothing happens for the first 60% of the book anyway. Literally nothing. It isn't mysterious, dramatic, exciting, funny. It's just "nothing".
The characters are distinctive and well written in a sense BUT that makes it WORSE and more frustrating because individually, yes, they hint at being interesting when interacting with each other but when they then have to turn back to the "plot", they just act as though having casual suggestions about sacrificing their children is ok, and all just accept the crazy behaviour of the father of the family. In any other book, they would acknowledge that he's raving mad, his plan makes no sense and he's putting everyone at risk.
Also, I appreciate that Gladys Mitchell has a sometimes challenging style of writing and personally I enjoy that, however, this time around it's just too much. It's just pretentious twaddle with the occasional reference to Latin, literature and Ancient Greece, in an attempt at pseudo-intellectualism.
Mrs Bradley is unique amongst the Detectives of this period but here she's relegated to a slightly boring "aunt" type figure who joins the expedition but frankly could have been absent for 2 thirds of the book without affecting the plot.
In summary, badly written and preposterously plotted. A terrible entry in the Mrs Bradley series. There's far far better Mrs Bradley mysteries than this. Read them instead.
Where do I start?
The "story" is ridiculous - a man decides to up his entire extended family to recreate a journey to an "Ancient Greek ceremony" because by doing so, they'll somehow work out how some people disappeared after a similar ceremony a few thousand years ago. Huh?
It makes no sense that Mrs Bradley doesn't just call this out as nonsensical but moving on from the daft premise, the mystery is mysterious only in it's absence. Nothing happens for the first 60% of the book anyway. Literally nothing. It isn't mysterious, dramatic, exciting, funny. It's just "nothing".
The characters are distinctive and well written in a sense BUT that makes it WORSE and more frustrating because individually, yes, they hint at being interesting when interacting with each other but when they then have to turn back to the "plot", they just act as though having casual suggestions about sacrificing their children is ok, and all just accept the crazy behaviour of the father of the family. In any other book, they would acknowledge that he's raving mad, his plan makes no sense and he's putting everyone at risk.
Also, I appreciate that Gladys Mitchell has a sometimes challenging style of writing and personally I enjoy that, however, this time around it's just too much. It's just pretentious twaddle with the occasional reference to Latin, literature and Ancient Greece, in an attempt at pseudo-intellectualism.
Mrs Bradley is unique amongst the Detectives of this period but here she's relegated to a slightly boring "aunt" type figure who joins the expedition but frankly could have been absent for 2 thirds of the book without affecting the plot.
In summary, badly written and preposterously plotted. A terrible entry in the Mrs Bradley series. There's far far better Mrs Bradley mysteries than this. Read them instead.
Read
February 23, 2025A typically odd Mrs Bradley, following a tour of ancient Greek sacred sites by the sort of oddball classicist who flourished in the early twentieth century, convinced that if he can only re-enact what little is recorded of the mysteries then perhaps the rest, lost for centuries, will follow. In another book, he and his friend turned rival could easily have been the leads; equally, the younger generation might have been the focus, whether the romantic entanglements of the older kids, or the distinctly Just William adventures of their little brothers. But parents or offspring alike, they're all 'child' to Mrs Bradley, bonding with the serpents who've been brought along for the rites and conceding that she might have been the original Pythoness. As in The Twenty-Third Man, Mitchell delights in having it both ways, mocking the entitled exasperation of Brits abroad while feeling no obligation to spare the Greeks or especially their sanitation, but it's saved from getting too cranky by her sense of place and time, with beautiful, bittersweet descriptions of the ruined temples and tombs in a time before mass tourism, where the party are able to camp out overnight and get into scrapes of varying degrees of spookiness. Between the fraying tempers, the complete absence of health and safety, and the fact the book is sold as a murder mystery, it becomes ever more remarkable that we're over 200 of its 320 pages in before anyone actually dies, and even then nobody seems remotely bothered about seeing the killer punished. But I always was more about vibes than clockwork in crime fiction, so I have no objection, though I imagine many might.
November 17, 2013
Sir Rudri Hopkinson, an eccentric (perhaps deranged) archaeology enthusiast sets off to recreate ancient rituals at the temple of Eleusis. Mrs Bradley joins the party. It’s a good tale with a fabulous cast of characters including gods, a rival scholar, lovers, a cruel photographer, a loyal retainer and jolly little boys (imps of Satan) who become Mrs Bradley’s helpers. Snakes, goats, dusty roads, a wild and a desolate landscape do not impair Mrs Bradley’s intellectual brilliance as she leads the reader through Greek myths and discovers who will die, and why.
Read
November 6, 2012There are reasons why Gladys Mitchell is not up there with the Queens of Crime Fiction... This one appeared to be making extensive use of a trip to Greece, in the service of a curiously paced-plot concerning characters not merely implausibly eccentric, but also uninteresting (I'm not sure that should be 'but': it was hard to get interested because of the implausible eccentricity).
February 8, 2008
Although the cover blurb touts this as "one of her best" I don't agree. Ending is flat and predictable.
October 29, 2012
This one seemed to go on and on with nothing much happening. So boring. Almost gave up. Such a shame as have enjoyed the others.
November 17, 2012
One where the author doesn't give enough clues for the reader to be able to try to solve whodunnit which I find frustrating
November 20, 2012
Doesn't even remotely compare to Agatha Christie...
Read
December 25, 2022Sir Rudri Hopkinson, an eccentric amateur archaeologist, is determined to recreate ancient rituals at the temple of Eleusis in Greece in the hope of summoning the goddess Demeter. He gathers together a motley collection of people to assist in the experiment, including a rival scholar, a handsome but cruel photographer and a trio of mischievous children. But when one of the group disappears, and a severed head turns up in a box of snakes, the superlative detective and psychoanalyst Mrs Bradley is called upon to investigate…
There is a little story that that goes with this book. I bought it and I started reading it the same day (a week Saturday just gone) even though I have Tom Brown’s Body, Death and the Maiden, Death at the Opera and The Mystery of a Butcher’s Shop already. I bought them an age ago (probably around the last review I wrote of When Last I Died) and they’ve been patiently waiting. Buying a new one though meant that I didn’t have to choose. I just got cracking.
This time we find Mrs Bradley having a holiday, sort of. It’s not really a holiday as she’s in Greece accompanying the eccentric Sir Hopkinson on his pilgrimage to call on the gods and having the role of matriarch to the group that accompanies him. And for that it’s a quite a leisurely tale. The murder comes quite late so it’s more about guessing who it’s going to be and why. It does keep you wondering as you follow the group on their travels.
What did strike me is that Mrs Bradley is quite amoral at times; hiding things that other detectives probably wouldn’t . She doesn’t have the ‘helping police’ thing that you get with her contemporaries. It would spoil it to explain further but it makes her quite refreshing when she keep secrets that others would probably reveal.
It is a story about the interactions of the different characters and how those tensions and connections play out while waiting for the severed head to turn up. So I’d say it was more like a domestic drama with a death thrown in towards the end. And lots of drama there is – secret weddings, affairs, jealousy, visitations, madness, disappearing snakes, oh and the murder.
As it feels more like a drama than a mystery story it lacks a certain tension but it is an enjoyable read nonetheless. It is fascinating if you have a liking of ancient history. It’s a little jolly around a few ancient sites and a little bit of a history lesson thrown in.
In December Vintage are releasing another twentyish books in the Mrs Bradley Mysteries series making the total releases into the thirties – so about half of the 66 written – and from the three I’ve read so far Gladys Mitchell likes to mix up her formula and from that I’m not sure you know what you’ll get next. But you know what? I think Mrs Bradley is a character to keep reading where ever Gladys takes her.
There is a little story that that goes with this book. I bought it and I started reading it the same day (a week Saturday just gone) even though I have Tom Brown’s Body, Death and the Maiden, Death at the Opera and The Mystery of a Butcher’s Shop already. I bought them an age ago (probably around the last review I wrote of When Last I Died) and they’ve been patiently waiting. Buying a new one though meant that I didn’t have to choose. I just got cracking.
This time we find Mrs Bradley having a holiday, sort of. It’s not really a holiday as she’s in Greece accompanying the eccentric Sir Hopkinson on his pilgrimage to call on the gods and having the role of matriarch to the group that accompanies him. And for that it’s a quite a leisurely tale. The murder comes quite late so it’s more about guessing who it’s going to be and why. It does keep you wondering as you follow the group on their travels.
What did strike me is that Mrs Bradley is quite amoral at times; hiding things that other detectives probably wouldn’t . She doesn’t have the ‘helping police’ thing that you get with her contemporaries. It would spoil it to explain further but it makes her quite refreshing when she keep secrets that others would probably reveal.
It is a story about the interactions of the different characters and how those tensions and connections play out while waiting for the severed head to turn up. So I’d say it was more like a domestic drama with a death thrown in towards the end. And lots of drama there is – secret weddings, affairs, jealousy, visitations, madness, disappearing snakes, oh and the murder.
As it feels more like a drama than a mystery story it lacks a certain tension but it is an enjoyable read nonetheless. It is fascinating if you have a liking of ancient history. It’s a little jolly around a few ancient sites and a little bit of a history lesson thrown in.
In December Vintage are releasing another twentyish books in the Mrs Bradley Mysteries series making the total releases into the thirties – so about half of the 66 written – and from the three I’ve read so far Gladys Mitchell likes to mix up her formula and from that I’m not sure you know what you’ll get next. But you know what? I think Mrs Bradley is a character to keep reading where ever Gladys takes her.
January 30, 2021
Enjoyed reading this one, though the plot itself was a bit problematic. It takes place in Greece, and you see the insularity of the British in all it's 1930s reality. Anyone who is not British is definitely "other," the fact that it's not Britain makes "justice" questionable, and Mitchell does use questionable language at least once: a word or two would be cleaned up by modern editors (read a kindle version transcribed from the original published work). One plot point seemed remarkably problematic, but without that point no one would have known the murder had taken place (and it is discovered very late in the book). I continue to be interested in Mrs. Bradley, but these are not the "cosy" mysteries of many Golden Age detective stories.
May 23, 2020
Having thoroughly enjoyed The Saltmarsh Murders I was fully prepared for another comforting slice of Christie-esque murder and to add Gladys Mitchell to my 'must buy' list of authors to look out for in the second-hand bookshops of the UK.
190 pages of discursive picnicking and camping in the ancient temples of Greece later, with only a cow and some flies coming a cropper, I was internally screaming "Come the fuck on, Bridge" at Mitchell, desperate for anything to happen which didn't involve lengthy chats about sleeping arrangements or the transportation of snakes.
It's worth sticking with as the last third neatly ties all the strands together into a satisfyingly unexpected solution. Mrs Bradley's slightly more hale and hearty fellow-well-met style is a departure from Mary Mead's finest, but it gives Mitchell the scope to plonk her sleuth into the heart of a sun-blasted landscape. When she's not observing her fellow acolytes foibles, entertaining 3 rambunctious boys or showing off her own ancient history knowledge, she's soothing the path to true love and of course solving the long-awaited crime. Which naturally she could see coming a mile off, sprinkling asides and clues for you to work it out yourself. I got it about half right...
190 pages of discursive picnicking and camping in the ancient temples of Greece later, with only a cow and some flies coming a cropper, I was internally screaming "Come the fuck on, Bridge" at Mitchell, desperate for anything to happen which didn't involve lengthy chats about sleeping arrangements or the transportation of snakes.
It's worth sticking with as the last third neatly ties all the strands together into a satisfyingly unexpected solution. Mrs Bradley's slightly more hale and hearty fellow-well-met style is a departure from Mary Mead's finest, but it gives Mitchell the scope to plonk her sleuth into the heart of a sun-blasted landscape. When she's not observing her fellow acolytes foibles, entertaining 3 rambunctious boys or showing off her own ancient history knowledge, she's soothing the path to true love and of course solving the long-awaited crime. Which naturally she could see coming a mile off, sprinkling asides and clues for you to work it out yourself. I got it about half right...
December 30, 2016
Come Away, Death by Gladys Mitchell - Dreadful
As everyone already knows, I'm something of an Agatha Christie addict and from time to time, I try other authors from a similar era that are supposed to be 'just as good'. This is one of these authors and she most certainly isn't.
I didn't take to the characters, I didn't like the dialogue, I didn't like writing style, I didn't find the story particularly satisfying. Now that I come to write this, I don't know why I persevered and finished it.
As everyone already knows, I'm something of an Agatha Christie addict and from time to time, I try other authors from a similar era that are supposed to be 'just as good'. This is one of these authors and she most certainly isn't.
I didn't take to the characters, I didn't like the dialogue, I didn't like writing style, I didn't find the story particularly satisfying. Now that I come to write this, I don't know why I persevered and finished it.
October 1, 2017
Classic era mystery, written in clear prose (Edmund Crispin on the front describes it as "pellucid" - great word!) with an engaging investigator (the cackling, Freud-reading Mrs Bradley) and an entertaining set of characters, mainly of the aristocratic English (and Scottish) mode. But (could you tell it was coming) the story is slow and drawn-out and the solutions were just blabbed - there was no dramatic reveal, no climax, just an end which arrived too late.
April 11, 2019
Atmospheric, enigmatic and, as always with a Mrs Bradley story, with the feeling that the most moral course is a thoroughly amoral one. The detective story element comes a poor second to the enjoyably wry depiction of a thoroughly disreputable bit of experimental archaeology.
January 11, 2021
Excellent.
This probably the fourth time I have read this, it gets better. Perhaps not her best work, but one of my favourites. One of the finest writers of detective fiction there ever was.
This probably the fourth time I have read this, it gets better. Perhaps not her best work, but one of my favourites. One of the finest writers of detective fiction there ever was.
May 16, 2022
Not one of the better Mrs Bradley novels, I found I had to push myself to read it which is the first time I have had that problem with a Gladys Mitchell novel. It seems to take forever to get to the murder but by then it had already become dull and didn't really pick up again.
September 20, 2020
Pointless and underwhelming.
June 16, 2019
Not her best.
September 26, 2016
I was given six Gladys Mitchell books which I have been reading in between some fantastic classic books. The first three were enjoyable but the last three have been really poor. Death at the opera had an open ending and gave absolutely no chance for the reader to work it out. Death and the maiden was very strange and again the ending wasn't great. This book was so slow and nothing really happened for the first 200 pages. Some of the books seems to go on and on in random directions and you don't feel any connection or interest for characters. By the end of this book I didn't care who did it. Mrs Bradley often doesn't do anything when she knows the murderer which is strange because in some books the police are involved and in others, nothing happens. In terms of crime fiction I really don't think Gladys Mitchell is up there with the very best and I won't be reading anymore.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 7, 2013
The best, to date, of the Mrs Bradley mysteries I have read. The story takes a chapter or two to get going and engage the characters, but once on a Greek odyssey (around various ancient temples), strange things start to occur.
The travels serve to give both Mrs Bradley and the reader a psychological insight into the various persons on the jaunt: vital later when one of their number vanishes, and their head appears in a box previously inhabited by vipers.
With well-drawn characters and vivid descriptions of ancient Greek temples, this is as much a novel as a crime story: indeed, one might argue that the psychology of the characters is more important than the crime ultimately committed and resolved.
The travels serve to give both Mrs Bradley and the reader a psychological insight into the various persons on the jaunt: vital later when one of their number vanishes, and their head appears in a box previously inhabited by vipers.
With well-drawn characters and vivid descriptions of ancient Greek temples, this is as much a novel as a crime story: indeed, one might argue that the psychology of the characters is more important than the crime ultimately committed and resolved.
March 9, 2014
Unfortunately (because I want to love her so) this book was not very good. I feel that the only people who would get a kick out of this one are the ones who know their Greek histories and mysteries. I had to have Wikipedia open on my phone while reading and I was still found it difficult to follow.
This is the third Gladys Mitchell I have read and I jumped to the end after 60 pages, with a bit of flitting I figured out the plot and whodunit. This is why AC reigns she can weave a plot from the start, I feel this plot was added to the end and the rest of the book was inconsequential. Also the characters where not as well developed for me to care what happened to them. Disappointing :(
This is the third Gladys Mitchell I have read and I jumped to the end after 60 pages, with a bit of flitting I figured out the plot and whodunit. This is why AC reigns she can weave a plot from the start, I feel this plot was added to the end and the rest of the book was inconsequential. Also the characters where not as well developed for me to care what happened to them. Disappointing :(
October 26, 2013
The most comprehensible of the eight Mitchell novels I've read (that'll teach me to buy job lots at country fairs), at least I was sure whodunnit by the end, though the details still escaped me. I enjoyed the setting, and as ever her little boys are a delight, but my conclusion is that she is better read as a descriptive writer than as a crime novelist.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews