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Mrs. Bradley #36
Adders on the Heath
Set in the New Forest. A young man named Richardson is spending a few days under canvas, awaiting the arrival of a friend, before transferring to an hotel. One night he returns to camp to find a dead man in his tent and immediately telephones the police. But when they arrive the original body -- that of a man Richardson knew and with whom he had quarreled - has been exchanged for the body of a man he did not know. The first body reappears in a wood and suspicion for both deaths falls upon Richardson. Dame Beatrice LeStrange Bradley enters, and all her wits and intuition are required to probe and elucidate the mystery, and to save a man having to stand trial for the double murder.
- GenresMystery
267 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1963
21 people are currently reading
109 people want to read
About the author
Gladys Mitchell
99 books143 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 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 26, 2021
I tried another Gladys Mitchell mystery, checking whether my memory of this series as so-so was correct. Well, it was. This story of 2 murdered athletes in a camper's tent in the New Forest just didn't make a lot of sense to me. Corpses moving in and out of a tent in the middle of the night, neighbors behaving suspiciously, a school with a convenient poison cupboard. I don't know what to make of the main character, Dame Beatrice Bradley. A distinguished psychiatrist, she seems to have nothing better to do than to tool about in her chauffeured car with her personal secretary, making wild extrapolations from what people tell or don't tell her. Her household, with a French couple of vaudeville style to tend to her needs, includes that same secretary and the secretary's son, and the secretary's husband, a police inspector. Everything is very complicated, but doesn't really make sense, and some of the key aspects needed to make the story hang together are never explained. So, apart from the secretary's boy's conversation, I didn't find much to enjoy in this book.
March 13, 2022
Interesting premise, good use of Mrs Bradley and Laura et el. Decent mystery and good set up/start to the book.
Also, free from some of the irritating or "humourous" characters that Mitchell often tried to ram into her novels.
However, the plot got a bit too silly as it progressed. Like trying to guess who the murderer is? Try and predict a solution involving cows providing secret messages for foreign secret agents! Love a good Mrs Bradley book but this is plain daft.
Also, free from some of the irritating or "humourous" characters that Mitchell often tried to ram into her novels.
However, the plot got a bit too silly as it progressed. Like trying to guess who the murderer is? Try and predict a solution involving cows providing secret messages for foreign secret agents! Love a good Mrs Bradley book but this is plain daft.
October 16, 2017
A good read with a little slower start than her others. The end seemed to give a reason or two for the murders, but wasnt entirely clear as to how it all tied together. Still a satisfactory resolution to the reader.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews