Dance to Your Daddy

Mrs. Bradley #42

by Gladys Mitchell

Dame Beatrice Lestrange Bradley is typically consulted for her astute detective skills, but her most recent invitation is anything but typical. She has been summoned to the home of an unknown relative, Romilly Lestrange, who asks not for her assistance in solving a crime, but for her psychiatric opinion of his wife. The young woman, according to Romilly, has developed a troubling habit of tossing items and pets off a cliff top! But Romilly’s wife, Rosamund, tells a different story—one of repression and deceit at the hands of her captor. As Dame Beatrice attempts to discern the eccentric from the criminally insane, the news of a family inheritance arises, followed by the discovery of another relative’s dead body floating in the sea. Dame Beatrice must use skills both psychoanalytic and sleuthing to uncover the truth…for never has a case been closer to home, and never has her life been in such peril.

Legendary crime fiction author Gladys Mitchell sends her most notorious detective into her most perplexing case: the mystery of the Lestrange family itself.

Genres: Mystery

259 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1969

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

[Roz Radmore · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the oddest Mrs Bradley books so far ! She is asked by an unknown relative to give her professional opinion on his troubled wife . On arriving at Galliard Hall she finds a whole houseful of suspicious characters . Mrs Bradley will find she needs all her mental skills to sort this one out . Some of the suspects seem a little odd , others are downright insane !

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Starts very strong, but bungles the end a bit. Like in many of the other Mrs Bradley books, you can be certain of the solution by about 75% of the way through and then need to wait til 90% or so for Bradley to catch up.

[Damaskcat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mrs Bradley is asked to meet Rosamund Lestrange, who is a distant relative of her first husband. Is Rosamund mad or is she much misunderstood and kept virtually under house arrest by someone who claims to be her husband?

Mrs Bradley isn't sure when she first meets the lady concerned but she knows there is something fishy going on when she is given a room where someone could take a pot shot at her while she is in bed and probably kill her.

I found this a sinister and disturbing read with some very starnge characters. The book is well written and well plotted and I would defy any reader to work out what is really going on until close to the end of the story. The clues are there when you look back but it is difficult to identify and differentiate between clues and red herrings.

If you like your mysteries in the classic mould then try Mrs Bradley for an intelligent detective and well constructed plots and motivations.

[Gillian Kevern · Rating 3 out of 5]

A strong start, but about halfway through, something went ... awry. Gladys Mitchell isn't the sort of crime novelist whose effectiveness relies on her unexpected solution, but even so, the fact that I saw the twist coming so early on made this less enjoyable than it could have been. Something of Mitchell's usual subtlety was missing, I think. Still, I really liked the cast of characters introduced in this, and well ... 'If you can't murder 'em, marry 'em' is an excellent maxim.

3.5, rounded down.