Death and the Maiden

Mrs. Bradley #20

by Gladys Mitchell

Miss Prissie Carmody has a full house. She was living quietly and happily with her ward, nineteen-year old Connie, in her South-west London flat when Prissie's second cousin appeared, his young wife in tow. Edris Tidson spent the war years as a banana grower on the Canary Islands, but now he and wife Crete are staying--perhaps permanently--with their frustrated but polite aunt. Connie, however, is quick to show her dislike of the invasion. One day, Edris reads in the newspaper a letter proclaiming the sighting of a naiad, or water-nymph, in the River Itchen. Excited by this whimsical account, Edris organizes a family excursion to Winchester (which Miss Carmody is to sponsor) in search of the nymph, even though no one shares his enthusiasm on this subject.

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Fiction, 20th Century, British Literature

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1947

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

[Diksha · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is one of the books I got in that Rs. 100 per kilo of books deal which I have mentioned before. Boy, did I pick some bad eggs...

Reading this book was like sitting in a choo-choo train which arrived at the exact same spot at the end of every round/chapter. There was no congruence between the actions and conclusions.
That one star is for all the awesome characters who despite of their best efforts couldn't save this choo-choo train-wreck. I had never imagined that a writer from one of my favourite genres (Classic Crime Fiction) could disappoint me and give me a headache so severe. Just... really... I am exhausted by trying to comprehend this book and failing at it. Just... NOPE.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Finally slogged through the rest of this. I finished it, but I'm still not sure whodunnit OR who was killed. I've loved the Mrs. Bradley mysteries on PBS, but this did not live up to my expectations. Lots of meandering dialog that went nowhere.

[William Bibliomane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mrs. Bradley is called upon by an acquaintance of a former colleague at Carteret Teachers' Training College to look into a relation who has returned to England from banana-farming in Tenerife to stay with her. Miss Carmody is concerned about Mr. Tidson, who seems to have some unusual tendencies, and when the whole Carmody-Tidson ménage adjourns to a hotel in Winchester so that Edris Tidson can pursue reports of a naiad seen locally in the River Itchen, events begin to take a curious turn. But when two boys turn up dead, things take a sinister turn, and Mrs. Bradley, aided by her secretary Laura Menzies, must get to the bottom of a murderous plot.

There's a lot to like in Death and the Maiden for readers. If you're going through the Mrs. Bradley novels in order (and I'm increasingly of the view that it's the most sensible way to read them), then there are many rewards for attentive readers. Laura's friends Kitty and Alice (previously met in Laurels Are Poison and The Worsted Viper) reappear to help with investigations. Maiden also marks the first appearance of Inspector David Gavin, who will in short time become Laura's husband. Gladys Mitchell, never one to shy from literary allusions, this time peppers her quotations with writers from Aristophanes to Nicholas Blake, and includes the usual lore of local natural history and quotations from classic books about fishing. As is usual with Mitchell's work, the solution to the puzzle itself is a bit odd (in fact, due to a certain confusion of pronouns on the final two pages, I'm not entirely sure who dies at the end, but more on that in the proper review), but the road to arrive there is filled with wordplay, wit, and water nymphs in equal degrees.

Full review to follow.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can see why some folks were driven mad by this book but as this is the third novel of hers that I have read and the loitering style worked for me. She seems fascinated with the town of Winchester and with describing its river, bankside paths, and people. That may be the main impetus for her to write this; the characters in the mystery are odd, maladjusted and clearly no match for Mrs. B. Still Mitchell brings in some charming recruits for Mrs B's team, akin to Nancy Drew and her friends, to do some legwork. There is a distinct lack of urgency in this mystery despite the murders and somehow that worked for me. I chuckled and enjoyed following them on their riverwalks. The ending happens offstage and a bit as a tidy up instead of building to a dramatic end but that is a minor quibble since she clearly intended this as another sort of ride.

[Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rambling and unconvincing. Just skimmed the last chapters as I didn’t feel like wasting any more time on this.

[Alex Sarll]

Even while getting into golden age detectives, I've been a little wary of Gladys Mitchell, simply because I was a fan of Diana Rigg's typically elegant TV take on Mrs Bradley, so I suspected the cackling crone of the books might be a wrench*. But an article in Undefined Boundary** sold me on the occult weirdness with which some of the books flirted, and soon enough I found a library copy of this one, in which reports of a naiad*** in the River Itchen draw an ill-assorted extended family to a curious hotel outside Winchester. Even from that premise, I wasn't expecting quite how much the book would read like Saki - perhaps ever so slightly subdued by two world wars, but still with that same amused eye on the foibles of the respectable classes, that same awareness of the pagan music that can sometimes be heard over the C of E veneer of the British countryside. The biggest difference, really, is that here, when a poor child turns up dead, there is a vague sense that somebody should probably investigate. Is the naiad more savage than her classical antecedents****? Or might failed banana grower Mr Tidson be a killer as well as a presumptuous, bumptious creep? Mrs Bradley - intermittently assisted by three hearty young gels of the sort to whom Bertie Wooster tended to find himself unhappily engaged - investigates. And yes, she does cackle at least once per chapter, to the extent that I began to wonder if it might be a contractual requirement (with a reference to her beaky mouth and/or claws every second chapter), but most of the time it was still surprisingly easy to overlay Dame Diana, interpret 'Mrs Croc' as the more charming flavour of 'reptilian', a la Bryan Ferry. Considered as a murder mystery, the book is a bit of a bust, as a lot of the Goodreads reviews make vociferously clear. But that was never what I was after. So OK, it could have stood to be shorter, but as a study in abnormal psychology it's not bad, and as an excuse to write about England's cathedral towns, chalk streams and river meadows, it's lovely; I kept expecting to see Mortimer and Whitehouse somewhere in the background.

*Yes, I am exactly the sort of person who, had I known the books first, might well have been at least as sceptical of the more presentable screen version. Although Diana Rigg has long had me under enough of a spell that I suspect I would have come round eventually. Best detective show Neil Dudgeon ever appeared in, honestly.
**The Journal Of Psychick Albion, and an excellent read, even if the k always makes me wince.
***The blurb of the Vintage edition conflates water-nymph and naiad, which are both used within the book, into the tautologous 'water-naiad', which is not, and quite right too.
****Given Mrs Bradley's interest in folklore, it was a missed opportunity that she never suggested the purported nymph might instead have been a rusalka.

[David Deogracias-Guevara · Rating 2 out of 5]

As I gradually read through works written by contemporaries of Agatha Christie, the only thing that seems proved is how bad they generally were and how masterful Christie was. The BBC series - The Mrs Bradley Mysteries - has given a rather improved version of the works of Mrs Mitchell, which frankly, is not there in the written volumes. This particular book portrays Mrs Bradley as having a "claw" for a hand and "cackling" like a witch - attributes it would be impossible to link to Dame Diana Rigg who played Mrs Bradley in the aforementioned series. The book has not stood the test of time well in language or referring to one of Mrs Bradley's female assistants as "Dog". Unbelievably insipid.

[Jeff Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Classy crime from writing from author. Gladys Mitchell. Sleuth Mrs Bradley is drawn to Winchester when she reads a newspaper story of sighting a niyad. Disbelieving tales of water nymphs, there are darker things afoot with the death of two small children. Mrs Bradley allows one of former pupils Laura (known to her friends as Dog) to do the sleuthing including numerous red herrings and final twist in the plot. Gladys Mitchell is truly a lost star of the genre as makes Death and the Maiden an enjoyable read.

[S'hi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A prolific writer who I found it a little challenging to begin reading. She makes much of Freud and oblique references to pseudotheories, so it all becomes a bit tongue in cheek. For some reason I was reminded of Billy Bunter by this particular tome but her literary references were more serious for the most part with her sprinkling of Latin and French phrases. Somewhat convoluted at times but otherwise really a bit of a romp.

[Ron Kerrigan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've enjoyed a few of Mitchell's Mrs. Bradley books, but this one, not so much. The writing is enjoyable and Mrs. Bradley is a fun character, but the plot was way overly complicated with too many coincidences explained off-handedly at the end. I also looked askance at the dialogue between the young, female friends; could anyone ever talk like that? And as in some of her other books, a map of the environs would have been helpful.

[Linda Chrisman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very quirky book by one of the most quirky of detective novelists. Gladys Mitchell is not to everyone’s taste. Note some of the savage reviews here on Goodreads. However, as maddening as Michell can be, I do rate her as a writer. It is a far, far better thing to be occasionally annoyed by a Gladys Mitchell book than to suffer near terminal boredom with a James Patterson. I do adore Mrs. Bradley!

[Danuta Zalega · Rating 4 out of 5]

I only found this as I was going to Winchester

I may never have found this delightful but bonkers story had I not ventured to look for a book set in Winchester prior to a trip there. Quaint characters conspire to haunt each other and search for water nymphs amidst unfortunate drownings in the river Itchen. Will Mrs Bradley and trio of spirited 194Os Charlie’s Angels get to the bottom of who murdered the boys?

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

Thank goodness that’s finished! For some reason I read to the end despite the confused tangle of story and, the universally hateful characters (except Inspector Gavin).
The only bits I enjoyed were the descriptions of Winchester and the natural world, which are the author’s strengths I think.
I’ll never read another Gladys Mitchell again…

[Verity W · Rating 2 out of 5]

Given how much I enjoy the other Queens of Crime, every now and again I acquire some more Mrs Bradley books and try again in the hope that I just haven’t found the right one to unlock the series for me yet, and every time it’s the same problem. They’re just so hard going compared to the others. The TV version clearly seduced me!

[Roz Radmore · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was very disappointed with this book ! Struggled to finish it .

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though too long for its story, this is one of the better Mrs Bradley mysteries.

[Ivonne Rovira · Rating 5 out of 5]

Edris Tidson, the eccentric banana magnate and shameless sponger who sets the action in motion in Death and the Maiden (1947), bears more than a passing resemblance to Sir Rudri Hopkinson, the amateur archeologist and fellow crackpot who sets the action going in Gladys Mitchell's 1937 novel Come Away, Death. For that reason, I feared that Mitchell might be repeating herself just 10 years later. However, there was no need to fear any such failing from the woman that poet Sir Philip Larkin dubbed "the Great Gladys."

The cousin on whom Tidson and his wife are sponging calls in Beatrice Lestrange Bradley, Freudian psychiatrist and amateur sleuth, to determine whether Tidson is simply eccentric or going dangerously crazy. So, when a young boy is found drowned in unusual circumstances, Mrs. Bradley is on the scene, and she immediately realizes there's more to the boy's death than a simple accident.

Death and the Maiden has the trademark sly humor and clever writing that have entertained Mitchell's fans for more than 80 years. It's always a pleasure to read a Mrs. Bradley novel; I just wish so many of them weren't out of print! How Gladys Mitchell -- superior to Ngaio Marsh and Dorothy L. Sayers and nearly the equal of Dame Agatha Christie -- fell out of fashion for decades I can't understand. By the mid-1990s, only one of her 66 novels, The Rising Of The Moon, was still in print! Thank God that, starting in 2005, Mrs. Bradley novels began to be published again. I'm sure, after reading Death and the Maiden -- or any other of the Mrs. Bradley novels -- you'll agree with me.

[robyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one that I had to revisit to appreciate.

I first read it four years ago and I see that I left a totally unenthusiastic review. Having re-read it, I really enjoyed it. What makes the difference? Mood? A change in me? Getting older? I've got no idea. Possibly the immersive quality of Mitchell's writing is the problem, if I want to say that there IS a problem. Despite the fact that there is always a death in these books, often a shocking one - in this one, there are four, two of whom are children - there is very seldom a thrill. We are seeing these mysteries through the eyes of an old woman and a psychiatrist, who is very seldom shocked, though she is sometimes moved. Perhaps for that reason, there is no jolt to the senses, only a sober recounting of facts - I say sober, though there is often a nearly lyrical attention to surroundings, never more obvious than in this book, with its frequent returns to a particular stream.

Mitchell - well, I've known intelligent readers to be bored by her, and I can understand why. But with every re-reading of her books, I find myself more immersed. I don't think I read them for the story, I read them for the telling of it. I like living in that world, and find that it's possible to do so, thanks to her detailed and workmanlike world building.

I originally gave this two stars, and now I'm giving it three. But the book hasn't changed; I must have. It makes one question the entire business of reviewing. Possibly one should always revisit the books one loves and hates the most, at set points in one's life. We'd all learn something about ourselves, I'm certain, or at least realize that we have in fact grown and changed, without ever realizing it.

[Orinoco Womble (tidy bag and all) · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't know why I do this to myself.

Perhaps I thought La Bradley would have improved, this being Number 20 in a series. Apparently not. Though she has acquired a coterie of pleasant enough helpers, Laura, Kitty and "Dog" are still stereotypes of the big, blowsy, public-school jolly hockey sticks girls who laugh loudly and think nothing of walking miles in the rain. The hotel they are all staying at is apparently nearly empty, as they have no trouble taking over the sunroom, the drawing room, and changing rooms whenever the mood strikes them. "Domus"? Seriously? For a British hotel in the war years...I doubt it.

From the beginning Bradley acts as if she knows all, and suddenly halfway through she apparently knows nothing at all. All the important action in the novel happens off-camera: not just the murders themselves, but conversations, encounters etc--even between Bradley and her cohorts. We are told: "She told him all about it on the way to the bridge" or whatever, and never get to find out what "it" was. Either the authoress thinks her audience can pick up on nudges and winks or she just didn't really work things out. The reveal scenes are just as bad; lots of significant looks and pauses that are not filled in. I can't even tune my keyboard to discuss the "hysterical spinster" idea that forms the core of the "solution." Ugh. I would expect better from a female writer. And seriously--naming a half-Greek woman "Crete" in the thirties or forties is just ridiculous. Cardboard, anyone?
Anyone who could say Mitchell is comparable in craft to Dorothy Sayers must be on something.
One and a half stars.

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good mystery, though some of the explanations a little unclear. I'm not sure I understand why or how the second murder happened. In the classic style of many murder mysteries of the age - a good romp.

[Nadia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Somewhat of a pointless story. Murder mystery, optional.
Mitchell has a tendency to get totally lost in blabbering on and on. Mrs Bradley, on the other hand, is a delightful character and her presence saved the story. Though, I'm not not sure the book is worth reading, despite Mrs Bradley and witty writing.

[Lucy · Rating 2 out of 5]

No mystery here, more a travel guide to Winchester which Miss Mitchell obviously loved. I found her young women very unconvincing in this one, and Mrs B was rather subdued. Altogether rather unsatisfying.

[Gillian Kevern · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this Gladys Mitchell suffered by being a reread and read after I'd just finished a new-to-me P.D. James. I'd managed to forget the ending, but it wasn't entirely a surprise--it seemed like the only possible outcome. Not sure if this was my memory or the story.

[kami · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit of a strange scenario that requires some concentration. Enjoyed it though.

[Johanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good if convoluted golden age murder mystery with a slightly unsatisfactory ending.

[Booksnpieces · Rating 3 out of 5]

We'll written but I was a bit disappointed in the ending.

[SJMR · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'd read some bad reviews of this book but it was ok. It didn't seem like one of her normal books and kind of didn't really seem to conclude and dragged a bit.