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Mrs. Bradley #23
Murder in the Snow
‘A delight… An amateur sleuth to rival Miss Marple’ Guardian
(Please note that this book was previously published as Groaning Spinney.)
Mrs Bradley, sharp-eyed detective and celebrated psychiatrist, has decided to spend Christmas with her nephew at his beautiful house in the Cotswolds.
It isn’t long before a mystery unfolds. There are strange events occurring in the nearby wood and local villagers are receiving anonymous threatening letters. Then the snow begins to fall – and a body is discovered.
Mrs Bradley is on the case, but she’ll have to hatch an ingenious plan to reveal the truth and find the culprit…
(Please note that this book was previously published as Groaning Spinney.)
Mrs Bradley, sharp-eyed detective and celebrated psychiatrist, has decided to spend Christmas with her nephew at his beautiful house in the Cotswolds.
It isn’t long before a mystery unfolds. There are strange events occurring in the nearby wood and local villagers are receiving anonymous threatening letters. Then the snow begins to fall – and a body is discovered.
Mrs Bradley is on the case, but she’ll have to hatch an ingenious plan to reveal the truth and find the culprit…
220 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1950
About the author
Gladys Mitchell
92 books130 followersAka 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 117 reviews
November 27, 2017
‘There’s something horribly eerie about snow in the country. I’d never realized it before. It’s so silent. I’d rather have rain, and hear the sound of it.’
‘I miss the newspapers,’ said Jonathan. ‘The wireless is all right in its way, but—’
‘What did it say about the weather?’
‘Snow on high ground, spreading eastwards and south.’
‘Oh, dear! We may be cut off for days!’
There is much to like about Murder in the Snow (originally published as Groaning Spinney), most of all I loved the scene setting: Mrs Bradley visits her nephew and his new wife for the Christmas holidays in the Cotswolds and just as they settle in, the snow begins to fall. And keeps on falling, cutting off the village community from the outside world. As the snowfall stops and roads begin to clear, a body is discovered.
But this is not the only disturbance: a woman goes missing, and some poison letters make their rounds through the village. Yeah, it had a lot of similarities with Christie's The Moving Finger (published nearly ten years earlier):
‘Oh, Lord!’ said Jonathan. ‘I do hope this isn’t going to begin. Have you got one?’
‘One what?’ asked Deborah, opening some retarded Christmas cards.
‘An anonymous contribution to your knowledge of my morals and conceits. I’ve got a beauty about you!’
I loved Mrs Bradley and her family, but didn't manage to maintain an interest in the mystery. For all Mrs Bradley straight-laced attitude and witty snark, the story was a typical Mitchell construction - it lost momentum after the first third and only perked up occasionally from there on until the end.
But what an end! Mrs Bradley and her nephew literally try and hunt down the villain - on a fox hunt. Yes, it is dated. Very dated in parts, but some of the dialogue still makes me smile, even tho I have no idea how it progresses the plot. And let's face it, that plot needed progressing. Badly.
‘But what I think isn’t evidence.’
‘It probably will be,’ said the Chief Constable, who, beneath a curmudgeonly manner, cherished an affection for Mrs Bradley’s gifts and was rather put out of countenance at what seemed to be her negative results in this particular case.
‘Smack it about, my dear, and let’s get action. The papers are beginning to be shrill.’
‘If that that bears all things bears thee,’ quoted Mrs Bradley in solemn and sonorous Greek, ‘bear thou and be borne.’
‘That’s all very well. But fair words butter no parsnips.’
‘Do you like parsnips?’
‘Not particularly.’
‘Would you agree that it does not matter to you, therefore, whether parsnips are buttered or not?’
‘Oh, but look here—!’
‘I miss the newspapers,’ said Jonathan. ‘The wireless is all right in its way, but—’
‘What did it say about the weather?’
‘Snow on high ground, spreading eastwards and south.’
‘Oh, dear! We may be cut off for days!’
There is much to like about Murder in the Snow (originally published as Groaning Spinney), most of all I loved the scene setting: Mrs Bradley visits her nephew and his new wife for the Christmas holidays in the Cotswolds and just as they settle in, the snow begins to fall. And keeps on falling, cutting off the village community from the outside world. As the snowfall stops and roads begin to clear, a body is discovered.
But this is not the only disturbance: a woman goes missing, and some poison letters make their rounds through the village. Yeah, it had a lot of similarities with Christie's The Moving Finger (published nearly ten years earlier):
‘Oh, Lord!’ said Jonathan. ‘I do hope this isn’t going to begin. Have you got one?’
‘One what?’ asked Deborah, opening some retarded Christmas cards.
‘An anonymous contribution to your knowledge of my morals and conceits. I’ve got a beauty about you!’
I loved Mrs Bradley and her family, but didn't manage to maintain an interest in the mystery. For all Mrs Bradley straight-laced attitude and witty snark, the story was a typical Mitchell construction - it lost momentum after the first third and only perked up occasionally from there on until the end.
But what an end! Mrs Bradley and her nephew literally try and hunt down the villain - on a fox hunt. Yes, it is dated. Very dated in parts, but some of the dialogue still makes me smile, even tho I have no idea how it progresses the plot. And let's face it, that plot needed progressing. Badly.
‘But what I think isn’t evidence.’
‘It probably will be,’ said the Chief Constable, who, beneath a curmudgeonly manner, cherished an affection for Mrs Bradley’s gifts and was rather put out of countenance at what seemed to be her negative results in this particular case.
‘Smack it about, my dear, and let’s get action. The papers are beginning to be shrill.’
‘If that that bears all things bears thee,’ quoted Mrs Bradley in solemn and sonorous Greek, ‘bear thou and be borne.’
‘That’s all very well. But fair words butter no parsnips.’
‘Do you like parsnips?’
‘Not particularly.’
‘Would you agree that it does not matter to you, therefore, whether parsnips are buttered or not?’
‘Oh, but look here—!’
January 1, 2022
I started this before Christmas as the last cozy murder mystery for the season but all tough both covers I've seen look very cozy, the reading was far from this. It was a rather dull mystery and I didn't find anything to reallocate connect with. Overall its a story that will be soon forgotten.
December 12, 2017
At Christmas I like to read a good murder mystery, particularly if it has a Christmas theme - I'd not come across Gladys Mitchell before, but I was encouraged by a quote from a Guardian review, likening it to Miss Marple. And the Cotswold setting was attractive, as it's just up the road from where I live.
I think I can sum up this book in one word: dire.
I can't find a single redeeming feature. Christmas hardly comes into it. The sole Cotswold aspect is mentions of Cirencester and Cheltenham plus a few Mummersetshire accents for the common folk (who are, of course, mostly half-witted). The writing is abysmal. I lost count of the number of times we were told the main character Mrs Bradley 'cackled' or 'leered' - I'm not sure the author knew what these words meant. Certainly they don't make her seem appealing. None of the characters ever becomes more than a cardboard cutout. The plot is poorly thought through, and for page after page everyone is convinced about who did it (there are very few suspects), but struggles to do anything about it. And then it turns out they did do it. The whole experience seemed far longer than it was.
Never again.
I think I can sum up this book in one word: dire.
I can't find a single redeeming feature. Christmas hardly comes into it. The sole Cotswold aspect is mentions of Cirencester and Cheltenham plus a few Mummersetshire accents for the common folk (who are, of course, mostly half-witted). The writing is abysmal. I lost count of the number of times we were told the main character Mrs Bradley 'cackled' or 'leered' - I'm not sure the author knew what these words meant. Certainly they don't make her seem appealing. None of the characters ever becomes more than a cardboard cutout. The plot is poorly thought through, and for page after page everyone is convinced about who did it (there are very few suspects), but struggles to do anything about it. And then it turns out they did do it. The whole experience seemed far longer than it was.
Never again.
October 26, 2024
full post here at my online reading journal
http://www.crimesegments.com/2024/10/...
I don't actually remember the last time I was begging for a book to be over, but it happened here.
Murder in the Snow is the twenty-third installment of Gladys Mitchell's Mrs. Bradley series and book seven in my ongoing poison pen mystery reads this year. Starting late in a series is sometimes but not often problematic for me, but definitely had an impact this time around. It wasn't due to missing previous character development, but rather it was the fact that if I liked the books that came before, having a clunker once in a while is okay if those preceding were pretty good. In this case I had nothing by way of comparison, so I had no clue if this book was an example of one-off awfulness or if the entire series is this poorly written. Obviously, I didn't care for Murder in the Snow all that much -- quite honestly, as the story progressed so too did my confusion and utter boredom.
After a few poison pen letters, a series of murders, and a disappearance or two, one would believe that the story is ripe for a few hours of armchair detection, but I to say that this book is actually one of the most murky and boggy mysteries I've ever encountered, so that by the time I got to the final denouement I could have actually cared less, only happy that the book was over. It is incredibly rare that this happens to me, but in this case my mantra became "oh please get on with it." To be up front about it, I have no clue as to how Mrs. Bradley arrived at the solution she did given the meandering plot she offered her readers. As for the poison pen angle, that part started out strongly, with one major point connecting the letters to the overall murder plot, but it was still not enough to keep my interest strong.
I have a few of Mitchell's books, so I'll give the first one in the series (Speedy Death, 1929) a go to see if perhaps Murder in the Snow was an anomaly in terms of plot and writing. This one, sadly, I don't really believe I can recommend to anyone, even the hardest-core vintage crime readers.
http://www.crimesegments.com/2024/10/...
I don't actually remember the last time I was begging for a book to be over, but it happened here.
Murder in the Snow is the twenty-third installment of Gladys Mitchell's Mrs. Bradley series and book seven in my ongoing poison pen mystery reads this year. Starting late in a series is sometimes but not often problematic for me, but definitely had an impact this time around. It wasn't due to missing previous character development, but rather it was the fact that if I liked the books that came before, having a clunker once in a while is okay if those preceding were pretty good. In this case I had nothing by way of comparison, so I had no clue if this book was an example of one-off awfulness or if the entire series is this poorly written. Obviously, I didn't care for Murder in the Snow all that much -- quite honestly, as the story progressed so too did my confusion and utter boredom.
After a few poison pen letters, a series of murders, and a disappearance or two, one would believe that the story is ripe for a few hours of armchair detection, but I to say that this book is actually one of the most murky and boggy mysteries I've ever encountered, so that by the time I got to the final denouement I could have actually cared less, only happy that the book was over. It is incredibly rare that this happens to me, but in this case my mantra became "oh please get on with it." To be up front about it, I have no clue as to how Mrs. Bradley arrived at the solution she did given the meandering plot she offered her readers. As for the poison pen angle, that part started out strongly, with one major point connecting the letters to the overall murder plot, but it was still not enough to keep my interest strong.
I have a few of Mitchell's books, so I'll give the first one in the series (Speedy Death, 1929) a go to see if perhaps Murder in the Snow was an anomaly in terms of plot and writing. This one, sadly, I don't really believe I can recommend to anyone, even the hardest-core vintage crime readers.
December 24, 2018
This is a reprint from Vintage Murder Mysteries, a series that brings back into print mysteries from the so-called Golden Age of Mysteries. Alas, this is a series that doesn’t need to be brought back. The writing is muddy, and although Mrs. Bradley, the main character is a very successful psychologist, the author has her cackling and even leering at one point. The murders are such that we don’t really care, and the conclusion even leaves less for the reader to admire. There are murders in the snow, lots of chewing of slim clues over and over again, and it finally ends. I find it hard to believe that Gladys Mitchell wrote over 60 books with this character over the course of 40 years.
December 18, 2019
3 1/2 but rounding up to 4. My favorite Mrs. Bradley so far.
January 5, 2020
This is the first Gladys Mitchell I've read and I'm generally encouraged to try more. The plot and mystery was good, if a little too drawn out at the end. I liked Mrs Bradley apart from the references to her cackling and leering which were rather off-putting and just thrown in with no elaboration and no apparent link with her general character - I.e. I think you could have substituted 'she laughed' and 'she grinned' with no change in meaning.
The countryside setting included lots of references to country sports and gamekeeping with guns and hunting as the norm. This added to the interest of the 1950s setting and made me think about changes in society since then.
The countryside setting included lots of references to country sports and gamekeeping with guns and hunting as the norm. This added to the interest of the 1950s setting and made me think about changes in society since then.
July 3, 2020
How nice to find a Mrs Bradley book that I enjoyed, and a Christmas one too.
My first two experiences of Gladys Mitchell's Mrs Bradley books were not positive. I read a fairly poor all cast production of her first book, "Speedy Death" and tried again with the third book in the series "The Longer Bodies" which, while it worked as a curiosity that showed how early crime fiction flopped about like a recently landed fish on a dock before the modern genre emerged, wasn't a satisfying read.
I decided to try one last time, with a much later book, the twenty-third in the series, originally published as "Groaning Spinney" but cleverly re-titled as "Murder In The Snow - a Cotswold Christmas Mystery", which points it firmly at the Christmas cosy mystery market.
I had fun with this book. Published in 1950, it nicely captures a sense of an England in transition, where the role of the gentry is changing and men of all classes have returned from the war with different expectations of themselves and each other. Mrs Bradley goes to stay with her nephew, who has just bought a portion of a country estate sold off by a Peer of the Realm. He owns the manor house and a few farms and woods. The rest is owned by the State and is being used a (new at the time) Teacher Training College. I was fascinated by the wealth and privilege that Mrs Bradley's nephew took for granted, while at the same time trying to get the locals NOT to refer to him as "Your Lordship" - a title he doesn't hold.
In the beginning, the book does a splendid job of giving a Landlord's view of life in a small Cotswold village at Christmas time. The local characters are clearly drawn, from the carter through the farmer to the land agent. The principle of the Teacher Training college is also shown to advantage although she and her staff and students are seen as earnest, enthusiastic curiosities.
The murder and the plot that spins from it was quite interesting, with lots of unexpected but plausible connections that held my interest while making it impossible for me to solve the whodunnit riddle.
Mrs Bradley is presented as an energetic, almost manic woman, with preternatural powers of observation, an appetite for the hunt and deep insight into people without the impediment of empathy.
There were points where I found the exposition a little clumsy and a little over-worked. There was a sequence of "Mrs Bradley Explains It All" scenes which were differentiated only by Mrs Bradley picking a new person to expound to. OF course, Mrs Bradley plays her cards too close to her chest to explain it all. She teases the reader by using her audience as sounding boards without telling them why she is testing her point of view.
But this was minor. The plot was interesting and the pace was adequate. There was a substantial amount of local colour, from archaeology through to joining the local hunt, and enough action to keep my attention.
This was a solid, Christmas cosy mystery and a big improvement on my previous encounters with Mrs Bradley. I shall be back for more from this period.
I listened to the audiobook version, which was released in March this year and was narrated with brio by Patience Tomlinson (shame about the cover).
Click on the Soundcloud link below to hear a sample.
https://soundcloud.com/ulverscroft/mu...
My first two experiences of Gladys Mitchell's Mrs Bradley books were not positive. I read a fairly poor all cast production of her first book, "Speedy Death" and tried again with the third book in the series "The Longer Bodies" which, while it worked as a curiosity that showed how early crime fiction flopped about like a recently landed fish on a dock before the modern genre emerged, wasn't a satisfying read.
I decided to try one last time, with a much later book, the twenty-third in the series, originally published as "Groaning Spinney" but cleverly re-titled as "Murder In The Snow - a Cotswold Christmas Mystery", which points it firmly at the Christmas cosy mystery market.
I had fun with this book. Published in 1950, it nicely captures a sense of an England in transition, where the role of the gentry is changing and men of all classes have returned from the war with different expectations of themselves and each other. Mrs Bradley goes to stay with her nephew, who has just bought a portion of a country estate sold off by a Peer of the Realm. He owns the manor house and a few farms and woods. The rest is owned by the State and is being used a (new at the time) Teacher Training College. I was fascinated by the wealth and privilege that Mrs Bradley's nephew took for granted, while at the same time trying to get the locals NOT to refer to him as "Your Lordship" - a title he doesn't hold.
In the beginning, the book does a splendid job of giving a Landlord's view of life in a small Cotswold village at Christmas time. The local characters are clearly drawn, from the carter through the farmer to the land agent. The principle of the Teacher Training college is also shown to advantage although she and her staff and students are seen as earnest, enthusiastic curiosities.
The murder and the plot that spins from it was quite interesting, with lots of unexpected but plausible connections that held my interest while making it impossible for me to solve the whodunnit riddle.
Mrs Bradley is presented as an energetic, almost manic woman, with preternatural powers of observation, an appetite for the hunt and deep insight into people without the impediment of empathy.
There were points where I found the exposition a little clumsy and a little over-worked. There was a sequence of "Mrs Bradley Explains It All" scenes which were differentiated only by Mrs Bradley picking a new person to expound to. OF course, Mrs Bradley plays her cards too close to her chest to explain it all. She teases the reader by using her audience as sounding boards without telling them why she is testing her point of view.
But this was minor. The plot was interesting and the pace was adequate. There was a substantial amount of local colour, from archaeology through to joining the local hunt, and enough action to keep my attention.
This was a solid, Christmas cosy mystery and a big improvement on my previous encounters with Mrs Bradley. I shall be back for more from this period.
I listened to the audiobook version, which was released in March this year and was narrated with brio by Patience Tomlinson (shame about the cover).
Click on the Soundcloud link below to hear a sample.
https://soundcloud.com/ulverscroft/mu...
December 10, 2018
Really not worth reading.
This was so boring, so dull. It took forever to get going and when it did I had kind of lost interest. None of the characters were interesting.
They spent a lot of time talking about ghosts which I wasn't here for. It also seemed to spend very little time actually around Christmas and quite quickly moved on. Too quick in my opinion.
I couldn't get on board with the mystery. I had to skim some of it because it was just so dull.
This was so boring, so dull. It took forever to get going and when it did I had kind of lost interest. None of the characters were interesting.
They spent a lot of time talking about ghosts which I wasn't here for. It also seemed to spend very little time actually around Christmas and quite quickly moved on. Too quick in my opinion.
I couldn't get on board with the mystery. I had to skim some of it because it was just so dull.
Read
December 25, 2019I really wanted to enjoy this but it’s keeping me from enjoying reading so I’m DNFing
December 22, 2022
idk this was really mean-spirited and borderline incomprehensible
November 12, 2024
I found this book an easy and mostly enjoyable read, however not up to a Christie benchmark. I rushed the last third and then had to go back to piece together what I had missed. I would characterise it more of a Whydunnit and Howdunnit. I’m still not sure why everything happened or the exact motives of the perpetrators.
The version I had had been renamed to “Murder in the Snow: A Cotswold Christmas Mystery”. Definitely a more cosy crime and appealing title than the original “Groaning Spinney”. Indeed the Cotswolds at Christmas setting was one of the most interesting aspect.
I picked this book up in a classic old second hand bookshop alongside a green penguin Christie. I was aware of the author through the wonderful @Shedunnit podcast. I had not realised Gladys Mitchell had written some 66 books featuring her detective Mrs Bradley. The obvious comparison is to Miss Marple. Bradley appears more scientific and whilst in “class” terms is not a Lord Peter Whimsy, definitely further up the social scale.
January 7, 2020
Not very Christmassy which was disappointing. Very old fashioned but written 60 odd years ago so not surprising. It was quite dull after the first few chapters and a bit muddled, not as fast paced or bloody as modern crime.
January 6, 2020
3.5 stars - Not up to par with her other work, I felt this one meandered and plodded along, rather than gripping you into the mystery. - Not bad, but not good either.
November 6, 2020
Gladys Mitchell's bizarre detective Mrs Bradley is invited to her nephew's large Cotswold country house for Christmas. Of course there's deep snow, and of course a body is found in it. Apart from one brief visit to London, Mrs Bradley abandons her psychiatry patients (until March!) and stays to solve the mystery.
Taken on its own terms, ie not to be taken too seriously, I thought this was a great cosy winter read. It made me wish for log fires and chestnuts.
There were also some good one-liners: for example, "People always expect a cooked breakfast in other people's houses."
Taken on its own terms, ie not to be taken too seriously, I thought this was a great cosy winter read. It made me wish for log fires and chestnuts.
There were also some good one-liners: for example, "People always expect a cooked breakfast in other people's houses."
March 5, 2018
A pleasant enough read until about halfway through, then it become a tad tedious. Plot also became rather convoluted and rather dull. Couldn’t really engage with any of the characters, but enjoyable enough if you’re stuck indoors at the fireside in the middle of winter and want to while away a few hours.
December 11, 2018
A 3.5 for me.
I enjoyed the book but was quite easily distracted by feel good Christmas books which shouldn’t take away from this.
An old fashioned style crime book set in the Cotswolds snow. Sometimes keeping up with the plot was a little confusing hence being distracted. But overall I enjoyed it. Would be a good Boxing Day Tv drama adaptation.
I enjoyed the book but was quite easily distracted by feel good Christmas books which shouldn’t take away from this.
An old fashioned style crime book set in the Cotswolds snow. Sometimes keeping up with the plot was a little confusing hence being distracted. But overall I enjoyed it. Would be a good Boxing Day Tv drama adaptation.
December 29, 2021
It's a bit difficult to judge what time period this book is set in, though I would probably have to say the late 1940s or early 1950s. The style of writing is also very much of this period, and it took some getting used to, I have to admit.
It took me a while to get into the story, because it seemed to start off very slowly, which I guess was with introducing the characters and setting up the background. However, some of this scene-setting could have been cut, or amalgamated more into the actual mystery. That was, I felt, what let it down, that the first half seemed very slow and then everything suddenly began to come together in the second half.
Mrs Bradley was an interesting character with her background in psychology and a determination to solve the mystery. I did also feel, however, that she was kind of like mist; she came and went but we never really got to know or understand her. The Fullalove brothers were intriguing and their personal lives certainly made for a complexity to the mystery which I enjoyed.
I wouldn't say that this was a particularly easy read for me as the style of writing meant I had to concentrate on it more than I probably would have liked. If you like the old-fashioned style cosy crime mysteries then this is one for you.
It took me a while to get into the story, because it seemed to start off very slowly, which I guess was with introducing the characters and setting up the background. However, some of this scene-setting could have been cut, or amalgamated more into the actual mystery. That was, I felt, what let it down, that the first half seemed very slow and then everything suddenly began to come together in the second half.
Mrs Bradley was an interesting character with her background in psychology and a determination to solve the mystery. I did also feel, however, that she was kind of like mist; she came and went but we never really got to know or understand her. The Fullalove brothers were intriguing and their personal lives certainly made for a complexity to the mystery which I enjoyed.
I wouldn't say that this was a particularly easy read for me as the style of writing meant I had to concentrate on it more than I probably would have liked. If you like the old-fashioned style cosy crime mysteries then this is one for you.
December 20, 2020
I gave this two stars because the story was interesting enough that I finished the book. If it had been any longer I doubt I would have finished. Mrs. Bradley cackles and leers. At one point she is compared to a toad. She sounds rather like one of the three weird sisters in Macbeth. The plot was messy and difficult to follow because of lack of clarity. Who was speaking? Wait a minute, who is present at this point? I don't think I will read anything else by Gladys Mitchell unless someone assures me that her other books are much better than this one.
Read
December 27, 2020Mrs Bradley is psychiater. Als ze wordt uitgenodigd om Kerst door te brengen bij haar neef en zijn vrouw gaat ze naar Cotswolds (een streek in het westen van Engeland met veel weilanden en ook bossen en heuvels waar veel muren van kalksteen zijn). Hier maakt ze kennis met de buren en al snel wordt er een vermoord. Mrs Bradley zoekt het uit!
Omdat Cotswolds en Christmas in de titel zitten, verwacht je dat het boek ook de sfeer van deze streek en periode heeft, maar dat is niet zo. Bovendien zijn de karakters plat en is het voorspelbaar wie het heeft gedaan. Er moet echter een medeplichtige zijn: daarin zit 'em de whodunnit. En hoe ze het voor elkaar hebben gekregen.
Omdat Cotswolds en Christmas in de titel zitten, verwacht je dat het boek ook de sfeer van deze streek en periode heeft, maar dat is niet zo. Bovendien zijn de karakters plat en is het voorspelbaar wie het heeft gedaan. Er moet echter een medeplichtige zijn: daarin zit 'em de whodunnit. En hoe ze het voor elkaar hebben gekregen.
December 31, 2020
It was okay. Maybe I based the character on the tv version, but I couldn’t imagine her giving these loud cackles. There was a lot going on with gossipy letters, ghosts, and murders, but it was slow going.
January 1, 2021
A thoroughly delightful post-Christmas mystery.
December 24, 2022
I didn't enjoy this as much as I wanted to. I found the dialogue at times confusing and the characters not that likable. Christmas was pretty much glossed over, and most of the story takes place after the new year.
November 26, 2023
2 1/2, but I'll be generous and round up. It was okay, I suppose, but nothing very memorable. I always want to like Gladys Mitchell/Mrs. Bradley more than I actually do, and this was no exception.
December 8, 2024
I had to DNF this for the sake of my sanity. Do you know how badly a book has to be written for me to DNF? Some of this lines in this make no sense, there was one point where I genuinely couldn’t figure out if the book was being racist or not because the writing was so unclear I couldn’t tell who the “reptilian” that was being referred to was. Writing so bad it made me question whether I could read.
January 1, 2019
This was good enough, but I didn't find the mystery particularly intriguing and I didn't especially care who had done it. This was the first Mrs Bradley book I've read, perhaps I would have enjoyed it more if I was more familiar with the characters.
January 5, 2021
Coasts along on the "charm" of its amateur sleuth, psychiatrist Mrs Bradley, and a mildly intriguing murder in a Cotswold village that has neither much true local colour, nor a sense of the time period. Very disappointing.
Well, I finished it -- and I can't say I wasn't warned. This was one of those times when the Hive Mind of Goodreads was bang on the money -- this is a mediocre effort, by a Golden Age crime writer who has done better things. I pressed on to the end because, based on other Mrs Bradley novels I'd read, I was sure there was going to be a redeeming twist -- there had to be!! Something to explain all the plodding and padding, and make it all worthwhile. But no: there is very thin characterization, vague and unconvincing motivation, very poor psychology (which is funny, given that Mrs Bradley is, duh, a psychologist ...), and lots and lots of padding. Oh, and two of the stupidest, lamest murders in the history of cosy murder mysteries.
I'm trying to avoid spoilers ... I don't know why. I'd be doing you a favour to spare you any temptation to read it.
I was drawn to Gladys Mitchell's Mrs Bradley novels by the BBC adaptation, starring Diana Rigg. The two series are charming and funny, with wonderful period detail and costumes and, well, Dame Diana Rigg. I just should have stopped there, right? 'Nuff said. The BBC series is charming and fun, and I highly recommend it.
The novels, I quickly realized, are curiosities, and very different from the adaptations. Instead of Dame Diana, a beautiful middle age+ woman who is unashamedly indulging in a flirtation (or more ... :-) with her handsome chauffeur, Mrs Bradley is a know-it-all grotesque: in Mitchell's worldview, if you are an intelligent, independent "elderly" woman, you must also be ugly, and almost a witch. (If I had a nickel for every time Mrs Bradley "cackles" I would have a lot of nickels ...)
But it isn't the outmoded attitudes that bothered me about this: if you're going to indulge in murder mysteries of the 30s and 40s, you have to be strong, and brace yourself for a lot of casual classism, racism, and sexism. (Here, for for example, more than one character assumes that the writer of some nasty poison pen letters much be a woman because, well, y'know, women ...) When it's well done -- Agatha Christie, ECR Lorac, fr'instance, the author seems aware of the absurdities that some of her characters are mouthing, and the entrenched attitudes they are operating from, and provides some really interesting insights into the attitudes of their day.
What bothered me was the laziness of the writing. The two murder victims are barely introduced, let along developed, so it's hard to have any feelings when they turn up dead -- or any sense of who would have wanted to kill them, or why. Characters are trooped on -- to provide alternative suspects, I suppose -- but they do nothing, and go nowhere, just provide an ear to listen to Mrs B drone on an on and on, all knowingly. Mrs Bradley's "insights" are ridiculous -- instantly, upon introduction, this character is effeminate, that one "has a cruel mouth," another is a "bad'un." Since no one but Mrs Bradley gets to say much, you just have to take her word for it. And that's just the upper class characters, of course: the lower class characters, the farm labourers, servants and shopkeepers, are caricatures, straight from B movies ...
Final point, and here be spoilers,
Well, I finished it -- and I can't say I wasn't warned. This was one of those times when the Hive Mind of Goodreads was bang on the money -- this is a mediocre effort, by a Golden Age crime writer who has done better things. I pressed on to the end because, based on other Mrs Bradley novels I'd read, I was sure there was going to be a redeeming twist -- there had to be!! Something to explain all the plodding and padding, and make it all worthwhile. But no: there is very thin characterization, vague and unconvincing motivation, very poor psychology (which is funny, given that Mrs Bradley is, duh, a psychologist ...), and lots and lots of padding. Oh, and two of the stupidest, lamest murders in the history of cosy murder mysteries.
I'm trying to avoid spoilers ... I don't know why. I'd be doing you a favour to spare you any temptation to read it.
I was drawn to Gladys Mitchell's Mrs Bradley novels by the BBC adaptation, starring Diana Rigg. The two series are charming and funny, with wonderful period detail and costumes and, well, Dame Diana Rigg. I just should have stopped there, right? 'Nuff said. The BBC series is charming and fun, and I highly recommend it.
The novels, I quickly realized, are curiosities, and very different from the adaptations. Instead of Dame Diana, a beautiful middle age+ woman who is unashamedly indulging in a flirtation (or more ... :-) with her handsome chauffeur, Mrs Bradley is a know-it-all grotesque: in Mitchell's worldview, if you are an intelligent, independent "elderly" woman, you must also be ugly, and almost a witch. (If I had a nickel for every time Mrs Bradley "cackles" I would have a lot of nickels ...)
But it isn't the outmoded attitudes that bothered me about this: if you're going to indulge in murder mysteries of the 30s and 40s, you have to be strong, and brace yourself for a lot of casual classism, racism, and sexism. (Here, for for example, more than one character assumes that the writer of some nasty poison pen letters much be a woman because, well, y'know, women ...) When it's well done -- Agatha Christie, ECR Lorac, fr'instance, the author seems aware of the absurdities that some of her characters are mouthing, and the entrenched attitudes they are operating from, and provides some really interesting insights into the attitudes of their day.
What bothered me was the laziness of the writing. The two murder victims are barely introduced, let along developed, so it's hard to have any feelings when they turn up dead -- or any sense of who would have wanted to kill them, or why. Characters are trooped on -- to provide alternative suspects, I suppose -- but they do nothing, and go nowhere, just provide an ear to listen to Mrs B drone on an on and on, all knowingly. Mrs Bradley's "insights" are ridiculous -- instantly, upon introduction, this character is effeminate, that one "has a cruel mouth," another is a "bad'un." Since no one but Mrs Bradley gets to say much, you just have to take her word for it. And that's just the upper class characters, of course: the lower class characters, the farm labourers, servants and shopkeepers, are caricatures, straight from B movies ...
Final point, and here be spoilers,
January 5, 2020
A little long winded and convoluted at times but I loved Mrs Bradley.
January 4, 2020
A poor whodunnit from the over-prolific Gladys Mitchell. Renamed to have the word Christmas in it, the book is turgid, overlong, overfull of rural characters without real character, meant to be comic but not, and a complex plot requiring wordy dialogue and too much explanatory denouement.
December 17, 2018
I've been doing everything in my power to try to erase the sheer pain I felt on reading Trouble in the Cotswolds.
When I saw that "the great Gladys" had set one of her Mrs. Bradley stories in the area, I hoped that this would be a cure. In many ways it was. The writing was less dense than all 3 of the other novels that I've read, and the result was a far more easy read than the one for which I'd been preparing myself. No Greek poetry here, folks! Just a quiet country house murder set at Christmas.
After the casual racism of several other books in the series, I found the comparatively warm treatment of the Fullaloves quite surprising. (There was one comment about hating Anglo-Indians on principle, but that was it!)
Overall, I enjoyed it a fair bit, and it's definitely wiped the worst of the Tope from my mind, but of all the wintery crime stories, nothing comes close to The Mistletoe Murder And Other Stories.
When I saw that "the great Gladys" had set one of her Mrs. Bradley stories in the area, I hoped that this would be a cure. In many ways it was. The writing was less dense than all 3 of the other novels that I've read, and the result was a far more easy read than the one for which I'd been preparing myself. No Greek poetry here, folks! Just a quiet country house murder set at Christmas.
After the casual racism of several other books in the series, I found the comparatively warm treatment of the Fullaloves quite surprising. (There was one comment about hating Anglo-Indians on principle, but that was it!)
Overall, I enjoyed it a fair bit, and it's definitely wiped the worst of the Tope from my mind, but of all the wintery crime stories, nothing comes close to The Mistletoe Murder And Other Stories.
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