The trouble really began with a book. The book was a diary - supposedly the diary of a murderess who had been tried and acquitted of murder. But there were things that didn't add up in the narrative - mistakes, really, the kind that made it virtually impossible for the diary to have been what it was supposed to have been. It was purely by accident that this very odd document wound up in the possession of a British psychiatrist, Mrs. Bradley - who resolved to bring a singularly vicious killer to justice.
It happens in "When Last I Died
Like most of the Mitchell books that I have read, this one is almost impossible to define. Much of it takes place in and around a "haunted" house, although Mrs. Bradley is not particularly impressed by the haunting. There are murders to be solved, and some singularly horrific events. But, at the same time, Mitchell''s wicked sense of humor comes through quite clearly in her writing, and there are passages and events which are laugh-out-loud funny.
In England, Gladys Mitchell was considered the equal of such fine mystery writers as Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers. In the United States, she remains largely an acquired taste, and many of her books have never had an American edition. I'ts good to find some of her books are being republished in the U. S., most notably by the Rue Morgue Press. For readers of vintage mysteries and those who enjoy sardonic British humor, Mrs. Bradley is worth knowing.
." The focus here is not on the detectives - it's on the criminals. You'll meet some of the rather amazing rogues who inhabited Victorian crime stories, much to the delight of their audiences - people like Four Square Jane, Get Rich Quick Wallingford and Raffles. For the most part, they're "caper" stories, and it's a very entertaining collection.
," a collection put together by Douglas G. Greene for Dover Thrift Editions, where you'll find not only Sherlock Holmes but many of his literary rivals, male and female. Father Brown is here, and the Old Man in the Corner, and Loveday Brooke and the Thinking Machine.