The Dancing Druids

Mrs. Bradley #21

by Gladys Mitchell

Mike O'Hara is a young, handsome distance runner, working with his fellow athletes to catch his cousin, Gerry Gascoyne, in a cross-country game of hare and hounds. Playing a hunch, Mike separates from the group and soon encounters a man who tells him his quarry travelled down a lonely footpath. Instinct tells him otherwise, but Mike follows the path and is soon in unfamiliar territory.

As night falls and it begins to rain, Mike stops at a solitary cottage to ask for directions. The woman at the house tells Mike she's with a very sick man who has to be taken to hospital. Mike offers to help, and is soon working with a tall stranger to move the sick man--who is bundled from head to toe in blankets--onto a makeshift stretcher and into a car. Told to hold their bundled passenger upright, Mike grows more and more uneasy of the situation and increasingly alarmed at the deathly stillness of the sick man. Uncertain of what lay ahead, Mike jumps out of the moving car and tumbles out, escaping from the strange scene.

O'Hara and Gascoyne decide to tell Mike's story to Ferdinand Lestrange. The lawyer is not available, but much to the boys' luck, Ferdinand's mother is quite interested in Mike's tale. Mrs. Beatrice Adela Lestrange Bradley is on the case, and what criminal activity she uncovers--with the help of Mike and Gerry, secretary Laura Menzies, chauffeur George, nephew Denis Bradley, and a troupe of hired film extras--centers around a circle of nine prehistoric stones called the Dancing Druids.

Genres: Mystery, Crime

239 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1948

About the author

Aka 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.

Reviews

[Ivonne Rovira · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just love Gladys Mitchell's Mrs. Bradley series; however, they're not usually an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie. The attraction of the adventures of Beatrice Lestrange Bradley depends on the dry wit, the clever characterizations, the novel plots, and the surprising resolutions more than on thrill-a-minute action and car chases. But The Dancing Druids is different.

OK, to be honest, no one's going to confuse The Dancing Druids with The Terminator. However, the novel has a lot more action than Mitchell's usual fare. The tale begins when a college cross-country runner, Michael O'Hara, stumbles onto some misdeeds and gets himself kidnapped. Luckily, O'Hara escapes, and he and his cousin and fellow runner Gerald Gascoyne take the matter to Mrs. Bradley, who happily takes on the case. The investigation leads to a ring of thieves and the discovery of several murders. The plot careens from chase to chase, and the boys, Mrs. Bradley, and Mrs. Bradley's intrepid, Amazonian secretary, Laura Menzies, fall into danger time and again.

While The Dancing Druids is more traditionally suspenseful than most Mrs. Bradley novels, the humor, sly wit, and eccentric characters are still there for Mitchell's hard-core followers. Early in the book, O'Hara tells his cousin, "You are the very pineapple of politeness." A bit later, Mitchell writes, "'He's not such a bad kid,' said Laura, with female untruthfulness." Hilarious! Who wouldn't love a book with lines such as these? This novel isn't to be missed!

[Jay Rothermel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clever post-WW2 hatreds and anxieties.

[Alex Sarll]

I chose this as my next Mrs Bradley because the stone circle of the title is supposedly based on one I went past earlier this year, but having read the book, it's bloody not – Winterbourne Abbas may have crept closer to the Nine Stones since the forties, but I'm fairly sure they haven't been relocated to the valley from the hill up which the Dancing Druids stand. Still, they add a pleasing folk horror tinge to a case which mixes eerie locations – see also the house with the four dead trees – and an uncharacteristically action-packed investigation, all smugglers and mysterious kidnappings, like the Famous Five with the level of dismemberment and gunplay we might have expected from Nicolas Winding Refn, as against the comparatively restrained approach he actually employed. This is not the only unexpected direction; Mrs B's strapping sidekick Laura, engaged since the previous book, now demonstrates mild hesitation about getting her kit off at the least provocation, and even Mrs B herself at one point claims "I have a fatal habit of recapitulation due to having to lecture to people who won't read books but have been brought up on a diet of films and the wireless." All I can say is, she does a sterling job of not letting it get the better of her in the other ones I've read. But if the lineaments are more conventional than some of her outings (the crime takes place at the beginning of the book, for one thing, and is the sort of set-up – a lost cross-country runner mistaken for an expected accomplice – that's suitably atmospheric, but which one can imagine other sleuths, less strange than Lestrange, also tackling), the result never falls as flat as some of the restrained entries in the series, and certain details remain resolutely unexplained: what was it about the number nine? But, frankly, the main thing with any series detective story for me is that we get to see the regulars just being themselves, and this one has some delightful business for George the chauffeur, plus, well: '"Aunt Adela is very full of beans today," said Denis. "She feels she's up to mischief, and that, in my experience, always makes old ladies very cheerful."'

[Zander · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written in 1948 and the 21st book to feature Mrs. Bradley the author has a firm grasp of her characters and write a book that is more of a thriller and adventure than classical mystrey and I quite enjoyed. Mrs. Bradley is joined by her secretary who is a capable young woman both mentally and physically and a pair of cousins who round out a group of sleuths commanded by Bradley. There is a great deal of affection for Bradley in the book both from the fellow characters and the reader. There is also quite a bit of humour that stands up 80 years later. It was enjoyable to have female characters that were capable both young and old. The plots like all the Bradley stories still relay on the psychology of the day but it's less far fetched than in earlier books. So far this is my favorite out of the 4 I've read although I wish there were more in publication or on the Internet Archive. The book has a pretty good pace with lots of adventures, lots of side stories that tie in together at the end.

[Jessi · Rating 3 out of 5]

The mystery begins when a group of young men are playing fox and the hounds (a running game?). One of the hounds gets separated from the others and then gets caught up in a mystery. Where was the cottage he had stumbled across? Did he really help move a dead body?
Bit thinking that it’s worth contacting the police, he instead reaches out to Mrs. Bradley, her driver George and secretary Laura to solve the mystery.
I didn’t really get the ending, it got a little too complicated for me. But overall a nice book.

[W. VanCamp · Rating 5 out of 5]

OK why is Gladys Mitchell not as well known as Agatha Christie?

A great read. Plot is well thought out and a great atmosphere is created throughout the book. Recommended and a very good price!

[Lawrence FitzGerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun read. 3.5 rounded to 4.

[Jay Rothermel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clever post-WW2 hatreds and anxieties.

[Whistler's Mom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Running wild with a woman who never followed the rules.

Gladys Mitchell was a founding member of the famous Detection Club. During her life, she was included with Christie, Sayers, and Marsh as one of the "Queens" of mystery fiction. Unlike the others, she's become virtually unknown since her death in 1983.

I think several factors contributed to her slide into oblivion. Christie's heirs have continued to promote her books. Sayers and Marsh created attractive male detectives (with wives and children) who appealed to a wider audience than the elderly erudite psychologist Mrs Bradley. Critically, Christie, Sayers, and Marsh were all deeply conservative and their books speak to traditional ideas.

Gladys Mitchell was a rebel and a feminist and her erudite, elderly detective Mrs Bradley is not to everyone's tastes. (One critic used the expression "a tiresome old trout.") She never limited herself to a certain location or set of characters. Nor did she scatter clues around in the sacred name of "fair play."

She includes details about the lives of her characters, even the minor ones. It's easy to suspect her of trailing red herrings (as Christie was fond of doing.) In reality, it's just old Gladys exploring a character (or family) she finds interesting. I read old mysteries for their intimate look at life in the past so I'm happy to peek into windows and to hell with solving the mystery.

In this 1948 entry, Mrs Bradley, her secretary Laura Menzies, and her trusty driver George investigate strange occurances in an isolated coastal area. The local caves have harbored smugglers for centuries and may still be in use for nefarious purposes. Collectors of folk lore come to see the "Druids" - nine ancient stone uprights which are said to dance on certain nights of the lunar year. One of the Druids DOES dance one spooky night, but her chosen partner isn't the least bit interested in folk tales.

A couple of young men (cousins) are on a jaunt with their running club when one becomes separated. Stopping at an isolated farmhouse for directions, he agrees to help move the enormous body of an ill man to a hospital for treatment. Young O'Hara quickly realizes that the "patient" is far beyond medical assistance. The local police aren't interested, but Mrs Bradley IS.

Laura is engaged to handsome Metropolitan CID detective David Gavin, but romance hasn't taken away her taste for dangerous adventures. Under Mrs Bradley's direction, the three young people cover the ground, talking to locals and trying to disentangle the tales of three artists who mysteriously disappeared from the area. Why aren't the police looking for the missing men? Because one disappears every nine years and that's a long time in police work, with new crimes and criminals constantly demanding attention.

As always, the complexity of Mitchell's plotting left me dazed, but I loved the eccentric characters and the energetic hi-jinks of the young detectives. Mrs Bradley's dry humor is a constant delight, as is George's unflappable common sense.

Mitchell's career was teaching and she wrote for fun. If you can suspend judgement and follow her flights of fancy, you'll love her books. If not, cudgel your brain with a locked-door mystery. Plot train schedule connections or listen to some "scientific" detective drone on about analyzing forensic evidence. Me, I'm following Mrs Bradley down the Rabbit Hole. See you later.

[Damaskcat · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Druids of the title are actually a circle of standing stones and they play a key role in this fascinating mystery. Mrs Bradley and her secretary, Laura, hear about something strange which happens to Michael O’Hara during a game of Hare and Hounds.

O’Hara is one of the hounds and he is mis-directed by a stranger to an area he doesn’t know. He finds himself in a sinister situation and feels he may have been involved in a murder. Mrs Bradley is intrigued and decides to do some investigating herself.

Involving disappearances past and present, skulduggery on the coast and a positively obnoxious small boy this is a fast paced and intricate mystery with interesting characters and motivations. Mrs Bradley and Laura, backed up by George, the chauffer, make an excellent team. The way Mrs Bradley persuades the Chief Constable, Sir Crimond, to do what she wants him to is masterly.

Gladys Mitchell’s novels stand the test of time well. This one was first published more than half a century ago and can still be enjoyed by modern readers today.