sFor our regular visit to the Classic Mysteries vault this week, I've chosen a book by an author who is not nearly as well-known or respected in the U.S. as she is in the U.K. Gladys Mitchell wrote more than sixty books featuring Mrs. Beatrice Lestrange Bradley, a psychiatrist, frequently consulted by the police when they are trying to solve murders (and other crimes) that are unusual, to say the least. But then, so is Mrs. Bradley. Consider the case documented in 1935 as The Devil in Saxon Wall. I reviewed that one nearly a decade ago on the Classic Mysteries podcast. I'm not sure it's the best introduction for an American audience, but it is certainly one of Mrs. Bradley's oddest cases and, I think, worth another look. Here's a lightly-edited transcript of my audio review of that book:
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Wouldn’t it be wonderful to live in one of those idyllic English villages where so many English mysteries are set?
Perhaps. Or perhaps not. Consider the following description:
“The village of Saxon Wall, where they had come to live, was in a remote part of Hampshire. It was an ugly, straggling place, and Constance disliked and feared the people. They were like no villagers that she had ever seen. She had a poor memory for verse, but every time she encountered any of the inhabitants of Saxon Wall there came into her mind the line ‘ugly squat and full of guile.’…Both men and women seemed stupid and ferocious, so that, mixed with the fear of them, was a good deal of disgust. Even the children were ugly, and most of them threw stones at her whenever they saw her.”
Oh dear. Doesn’t sound like very much of an idyllic home, does it? For Constance, married to Hanley Middleton, it quickly became almost unbearable. And when Hanley’s behavior kept getting stranger and stranger, there was little Constance could do about it. And when it all ended in several deaths…and rumors of exchanged babies…well, what you had was the situation you’ll find in The Devil at Saxon Wall, by Gladys Mitchell.
Among the leading authors of England’s Golden Age of Detection, Gladys Mitchell remains probably the least-known in the United States. Only a relative handful of her more than sixty novels were ever published in the United States during Mitchell’s lifetime. It is only in the past few years that more of her books have become available.
Gladys Mitchell is something of an acquired taste. Her investigator, Mrs. Beatrice Lestrange Bradley, is a respected psychiatrist. She frequently helps the police with difficult cases, and her methods of detection are very often extremely…I guess “irregular” and “unorthodox” are the words I’m looking for. Her looks are described – frequently – as “reptilian,” her smile that of a hungry crocodile, her clothing taste might best be called “unfortunate.” During conversations, she has a nasty habit of using a bony forefinger to poke rather painfully at the chest of the person she is addressing.
The characters in Mitchell’s books – particularly the early ones, I think – define the extremes of what in some places might be thought of as "British eccentricities." Certainly there are plenty of characters whose behavior is both funny and repellent at the same time. And the villages where Mrs. Bradley does her investigating are the kind that would probably cause Miss Marple and the other residents of St. Mary Mead to flee for their lives.
As evidence, I offer Gladys Mitchell’s 1935 book, The Devil at Saxon Wall. The town of Saxon Wall is really unusual. All its residents apparently have deep and rather unpleasant secrets, including a distinctly unhealthy belief in witchcraft. And that early round of deaths I mentioned at the opening of this podcast – and the possible exchange of some babies – led directly to a series of most peculiar and dangerous events several years later.
That’s when an author named Hannibal Jones decides to retire to Saxon Wall, hoping to find inspiration there to overcome what appears to be a remarkably strong writer’s block. But Jones finds himself surrounded by unusual and rather unattractive characters. And the more he talks to other relative newcomers to town – the local vicar, the doctor, the pubkeepers – the more it becomes clear to him that the villagers’ secrets seem to include a fair number of murders.
So Jones calls on his friend, Mrs. Bradley, to come to Saxon Wall and help him make sense of what has been happening. And it isn’t long before there is another murder – and both Jones and Mrs. Bradley find themselves in some danger, as the townspeople try to keep their secrets deeply hidden.
That summary probably makes the book sound grimmer than it is. Gladys Mitchell has a wonderful way of working humor into her text, amid some genuine horrors. Readers looking for eccentric behavior and eerie atmosphere will find much to enjoy here – whether it’s the eldritch laugh of Mrs. Bradley, or the odd behavior of the sisters who keep a goat as their household pet, or the minister who refuses to pray for rain in the midst of a terrible drought, or the rumors of the “long, thin man,” a spirit buried outside town in a prehistoric barrow and believed by villagers to be sleeping there. And always back to witchcraft again.
It’s a complex tale – so complex that Mrs. Bradley’s notes on the case are appended to the book as a series of end papers after the story is concluded, explaining what really happened at Saxon Wall – and the clues Mrs. Bradley followed in solving the case.
All in all, it’s quite an accomplishment for Gladys Mitchell. I wouldn’t recommend The Devil at Saxon Wall to anyone who is new to Mitchell – or new to Mrs. Bradley, for that matter – but if you have read and enjoyed other booksin this series, you are very likely to find a great deal to savor here.
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You can listen to the complete audio review by clicking here.
Next: The Wrong Way Down, by Elizabeth Daly.
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