I recently read The Mystery of a Butcher's Shop, by Gladys Mitchell. It's the second book featuring her series detective, Dame Beatrice Adele Lestrange Bradley, who generally goes by the simpler name of Mrs. Bradley.
This book has been described as a parody of Agatha Christie's plots. The central crime is so gruesome and gory that someday everyone is going to think it's a parody of Tobe Hooper and/or Wes Craven. But it's presented in that Good Olde English Mystery way. The crime takes place in a village that has more than its share of cads and nitwits.
One thing that's very entertaining about Mrs. Bradley as a character is how spooky and off-putting she appears to be within the world of the story. She laughs at inappropriate places and her air of knowing much more than she lets on leaves others unsure of where she stands on the moral spectrum. She's good, but on her own stranger terms. While her psychiatric practice and mention of a grown son mean she's not a complete outcast, she is somewhat alien. The narration often compares her to a bird of prey or a saurian.
In the late 90s the BBC aired a television series starring Mrs. Bradley, played by Diana Rigg. The character would have been much better served by never having her adventures adapted into any other medium. For some reason they thought that she'd dress like a flapper and spout progressive banalities from three decades or so in the future. All it proved to me is that the Beeb is fully capable of the Hollywood practice of adapting books which no one involved has read.
2 comments:
Just hearing Mrs. Bradley's full name reminded me of the description of the golden age as the time when every Cabinet Minister had a thriller by his bedside and all detectives were titled. Common themes always included a strong sense of justice by the investigators of locked-room mysteries; country house murders; country village murders; and generally impossible crimes. This story is very much of the golden age and when I read that you've been enjoying one of them I only wish they were easier to find - or cheaper.
I read a lot of golden age mysteries over the years - some of which I didn't know had been classified as such - like Michael Innes and Ngaio Marsh. I don't think I ever ran across Gladys Mitchell, though, even as your description of her personality makes me think I'd like Mrs. Bradley. The idea of someone who looks like a bird of prey or a saurian who laughs at inappropriate times sounds good to me. Since this doesn't sound a bit like Diana Rigg it's no wonder the show failed - even if somebody at the BBC had read it - and didn't understand it.
I got a three volume omnibus of all the Miss Marple stories last year that were a treat to read again. I'll definitely keep Gladys Mitchell in mind next time I order some books.
Did I ever tell you I got two volumes of classic mysteries written by the famous Indian director Satyajit Ray? The Feluda books. Feluda is very like Sherlock Holmes and his young cousin resembles Dr. Watson. What makes the books so fascinating is that the two of them, along with a semi-successful mystery author friend, travel all over the country describing all the odd and ancient places they visit while Feluda solves mysteries Sherlock-style.
Authors in those days may have been in the habit of titling their detectives in order to show the reader that these characters were To Be Trusted. Whether readers in our times would be reassured in that way is an open question. If trust in the peerage has gone down that's true of a lot of institutions, some of which have done much more to alienate people. As to Dame Beatrice, it could be that she's been knighted in honor of her contributions to the science of the mind, but she also seems like the kind of person who would give herself titles to mess with people.
There's a blogger I've read who calls the few decades after WW2 the Silver Age of Mystery. There's a lot to be said for fiction written in this period. As it happens a lot of writers who started in the Golden Age were still at it, including Mitchell, Marsh, Innes, Dame Christie, Rex Stout, Ellery Queen, etc. Some were consistent in quality, some went downhill, and some fluctuated. Mitchell, from what I've seen, was fairly consistent. Diana Rigg was a fine actress, but I think in this case she was getting nothing from the script so just mugged to fill up time.
Marple was a great creation. It's funny that so many equate her and her creator. Of course Agatha Christie would eventually start playing it up but she was a young drama queen when she first started writing.
You have told me about the Feluda books on the phone. It sounds like a pretty cool idea. Holmes is obviously associated with Britain--and particularly London--at a particular time in history, but the idea could be transposed to other times and places. And India certainly has a lot of interesting times and places to cover.
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