Michael O'Hara was lost. He was the "hare" in a type of road race competition known as "Hare and Hounds," in which he, as the hare, had to elude his pursuers and cross a finish line ahead of them. He had managed to mislead and escape the friends who were pursuing him, but now he himself had become lost, running through a rather bleak and unfamiliar countryside. He was quite happy to find a motorist along the otherwise deserted roadway - even if the driver did seem to give him the wrong information about where he was and how to find his way back to his friends. It became more ominous and a great deal uglier when Michael found himself in the back seat of a windowless car with what he had been told was a very ill man - "very ill" indeed; Michael was quite sure the man was dead...
That's more or less the opening scenes in one of Gladys Mitchell's books called The Dancing Druids, a combination detective story and thriller first published in 1948 and featuring Mitchell's wonderful sleuth, Mrs. Beatrice Bradley. It's the subject of today's audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast, and you can listen to the complete review by clicking here.
Michael does manage to escape from that car - and finds himself covered in blood when he gets to a nearby pub.Should he go to the police? What can he tell them? That someone may be dead somewhere? He has no idea where he was when all of this happened. Fortunately for him, he meets Mrs. Bradley, who is 90 years old, a psychiatrist with all the charm of a rather hungry crocodile. She is most interested in Michael O'Hara's story, and she also fears that he may be in danger. Mrs. Bradley and her assistants and friends open an investigation which will discover several mysterious disappearances – dating back at nine year intervals – and a great deal more. Somehow, it is all tied up with the nine stones standing, rather like Stonehenge, in a prehistoric ring, known as the Dancing Druids, which, according to local legend, can and do dance on certain nights...
This is a very good mystery with a heavy dose of thriller as well. The rather frightening and fantastic atmosphere often gives the reader the feeling of being trapped in one of the bloodier fairy tales – and, in fact, each chapter opens with a brief (and relevant) quotation from one of the Grimm brothers’ tales. Mitchell provides a first-rate air of menace and evil, along with some compelling characters. Most astute readers will have little difficulty figuring out which characters will turn out to be the villains, but that's not really the point of the story. It's a good, chilling read, told with Mitchell's usual wit and good humor. American readers would be wise to anticipate finding a very large amount of English eccentricity on display here. At the moment, it appears to be available in an e-book version from Amazon's Thomas & Mercer publishing division. And it's highly recommended.
Comments