Gladys Mitchell books are both classic detective fiction and unusual examples of the same.*

The Longer Bodies was a satisfying read, one of the most overtly funny and with some absolutely unforgetable characters, noticeably the mad Great Aunt whose eccentricity leads her grand nieces and nephews to vie for their inheritance. A very enjoyable read. Would have been 5 stars except for the rather jarring notes, where highly unlikely explanations are given for clues.


*It takes a while to adjust to the style of the Mrs. Bradley series; certainly I find them unlike most of the other golden era offerings. The writing is superb, the settings range from melodramatic to classic (country house, quiet village etc.) but there are elements of gothic fiction not just in the plotting but in the characters. Mrs. Bradley is a grotesque if likeable figure. Her infuriating habit of explaining the crime away one way, only to renounce that explanation and explain it another way, coupled with her rather ungenerous habit of holding the cards too close to her chest for even the reader to see, can be irritating but the compensation of the witty, and atmospheric writing helps. ( )

As far as I can see, the only good reason for reading "The Longer Bodies", other than forgivable ignorance of what you're letting yourself in for, is the kind of curiosity that leads you to read "The Life & Opinions of Tristam Shandy, Gentleman". Just as Tristam Shandy shows you what a novel looked like before people really figured out how to write one, "The Longer Bodies" shows you how early crime fiction flopped about like a recently landed fish on a dock before the modern genre emerged.

The first half of the book, a long, long, oh-God-am-I-not-yet-through-this, 150 pages or so is a complete mess: scrappy exposition, cardboard characterisation more suited to a farce, an investigative method that was explained at length and yet was both ineffective and implausible.

When Mrs Bradley finally flies in on her broomstick, the novel flares brightly for a while, like a cheap candle with a bad wick and then starts, all too slowly, to gutter and die. The denouement is protracted, clumsy, implausible and would, in any book less dull than this one, have been anticlimactic but here simply sustained a level of when-will-this-end tedium.

There were some stray shafts of sunlight in this cloudy waste of a day novel. Mrs Bradley weaponises eccentricity by bringing to bear high levels of insight with very low levels of empathy and absolutely no need or desire to be liked by anyone. The improbably named Great Aunt Puddequet turns tyranny into an amusement in the way only a very old person, who has been wicked by the standards of her day but now wishes she'd been a great deal more so, can. The "children" in their late teens and twenties are a curious mix privileged prig and abuse survivor.

The depictions of the German trainer and the Scottish cook are so patronising and xenophobic that they could be the stuff of a Brexit campaigners' fantasy except for the hint of self-mockery.

This is a book that I endured rather than enjoyed. I assume that some of the sixty-six Mrs Bradley books must be worth a read. I went to this tribute site for guidance and was disappointed to see that "The Longer Bodies" is consistently listed in the top third. I think I'll restrict myself to trying one of the top three before I decide that Gladys Mitchell just isn't my thing
( )

An eccentric aunt decides to gather her family to take part in a athletic competition in the grounds of her house. Events will include 'putting the shot',long and high jumps and throwing the javelin. The winner will receive a large amount of the aunt's money.
Very soon things begin to go awry,including the discovery of two bodies. The police,headed by Inspector Bloxham are soon on the scene and interviewing members of the family and various servants and others. Things are getting more and more obscure instead of clearer,when Mrs Beatrice Lestrange Bradley arrives to cut through the fog and eventually all is made clear.
This is the third in the Mrs Bradley mysteries and it has to be said,it shows. She doesn't appear until page 102 and to say the plot is complicated is putting it mildly.On the other hand many of the characters are among her best, in particular Great-aunt Puddequet,who sets the whole thing in motion. ( )