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Jump to navigationJump to searchThe Mystery of a Butcher's Shop by Gladys Mitchell (view source)
Revision as of 20:10, 29 August 2020
, 20:10, 29 August 2020no edit summary
I am deeply fond of crime fiction from the first half of the twentieth century, particularly of the many female authors who came to the fore - Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham, Patricia Wentworth, Ngaio Marsh and Dorothy Sayers in particular. I was therefore surprised to find that Gladys Mitchell is a very similar author, despite being one I have never heard of before. Following her death in the nineteen eighties, her work has largely been forgotten, only recently being resurrected with the reissue of her books by Vintage Books. Having written some sixty books in the Mrs Bradley series alone, it has opened up a whole new opportunity to read books of this genre.
Mrs Beatrice Bradley is probably one of the strangest heroines I have ever come across. There is no sweet, butter -wouldn't -melt old lady like Miss Marple or Hilary Wentworth's Miss Silver here. Mrs Bradley is not a particularly pleasant woman at all. She is described as 'A small, shrivelled, bird-like woman, who might have been thirty-five and might have been ninety' who frequently stares rudely at people and gives 'hideous cackles', while prodding at them with a 'claw-like hand'. This would be the perfect description of a witch and really doesn't help the reader warm towards her.
Nevertheless, she is a quick thinker and manages to see ahead in ways that are almost supernatural. It is partly her awkward manner that allows her to find things out - people put her down as being eccentric and say more to her than they otherwise might. As a character, she is not at all likablelikeable, which does make the book less attractive than it should have been - had she ended up as one of the victims, I would have been quite happy. There is little character development in the book, but that is common in a series - there may have been a lot more in previous books.
The other characters have a little more depth to them; particularly Felicity and Aubrey. However, as Felicity is just twenty and Aubrey is fifteen, there is a little bit of an Enid Blyton feel to the book, which isn't ideal for an adult reader. The author appears to be a fan of young people - the older the character, the more boring and annoying they are. Nevertheless, there is a great feel for the intrigues of the village, along with an impression that the author is being deeply sarcastic and more than a little humorous at times as she gives her opinion of the social network that makes up the village.
