Books to get in mood for Christmas

Reading lists

Books to get you in the mood for Christmas

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Classic books all teens should own

A Cotswold Christmas Mystery

Murder in the Snow

First published in 1950 as Groaning Spinney, this classic crime treat is perfect for the Christmas season, and for fans of Mystery in White and Murder Under the Christmas Tree

This festive classic crime novel is the perfect Christmas treat for fans of Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers and Ngaio Marsh. 
 
‘A delight… An amateur sleuth to rival Miss Marple’ Guardian 
 
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… 
 
First published in 1950 as Groaning Spinney.

One of the "Big Three" female mystery novelists, judged the equal of Dorothy L Sayers and Agatha Christie

Take yourself back to a time in which ladies swoon, people say, “Dash it” and mixed-up telegrams land you in the wrong place at the wrong time. Murder in the Snow is a chocolate-box delight of a book… Just kick back and enjoy an era when even murder was sprinkled with mischievous innocence

If a relaxing diversion is of the essence for a good holiday, a Gladys Mitchell novel is a must

Watson's Choice

READ ALL AGATHA CHRISTIE? TRY A VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERY 
A young woman dies during a Sherlock Holmes themed party...a classic murder mystery from one of the queens of Golden Age crime fiction

This is one to be put aside for a relaxing Christmas read...the mark of a Mitchell mystery is to lead us into familiar territory there to shatter illusions of predictability...try guessing the culprit by all means but there are high odds against getting it right

Among the most revered names in British mystery fiction

Completely individual, instantly recognisable and highly enjoyable

Gladys Maude Winifred Mitchell – or ‘The Great Gladys’ as Philip Larkin called her – was born in 1901, in Cowley in Oxfordshire. She graduated in history from University College London and in 1921 began her long career as a teacher. Her hobbies included architecture and writing poetry. She studied the works of Sigmund Freud and her interest in witchcraft was encouraged by her friend, the detective novelist Helen Simpson. 
Her first novel, Speedy Death, was published in 1929 and introduced readers to Beatrice Adela Lestrange Bradley, the detective heroine of a further sixty six crime novels. She wrote at least one novel a year throughout her career and was an early member of the Detection Club, alongside Agatha Christie, G.K Chesterton and Dorothy Sayers.In 1961 she retired from teaching and, from her home in Dorset, continued to write, receiving the Crime Writers’ Association Silver Dagger in 1976. Gladys Mitchell died in 1983.

A VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERY 
Rediscover Gladys Mitchell – one of the 'Big Three' female crime fiction writers alongside Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers. 
 
One of Sir Bohun Chantrey's great passions in life is the stories of Sherlock Holmes. To celebrate the great man's anniversary, he throws a party at which the guests are instructed to come as characters from the detective stories. But several of the guests are more interested in Sir Bohun's money, and when he announces that he is to marry a poor governess, things take a turn for the worse, not least when the Hound of the Baskervilles turns up... 
 
Fortunately the incomparable detective Mrs Bradley and her secretary Laura are amongst the guests and ready to investigate the deepening mystery. 
 
Opinionated, unconventional, unafraid... If you like Poirot and Miss Marple, you’ll love Mrs Bradley.

Death at the Opera

READ ALL AGATHA CHRISTIE? TRY A VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERY 
A school play ends in death in this classic murder mystery from one of the queens of Golden Age crime fiction

Gladys Maude Winifred Mitchell – or ‘The Great Gladys’ as Philip Larkin called her – was born in 1901, in Cowley in Oxfordshire. She graduated in history from University College London and in 1921 began her long career as a teacher. Her hobbies included architecture and writing poetry. She studied the works of Sigmund Freud and her interest in witchcraft was encouraged by her friend, the detective novelist Helen Simpson. 
 
 Her first novel, Speedy Death, was published in 1929 and introduced readers to Beatrice Adela Lestrange Bradley, the detective heroine of a further sixty six crime novels. She wrote at least one novel a year throughout her career and was an early member of the Detection Club, alongside Agatha Christie, G.K Chesterton and Dorothy Sayers. In 1961 she retired from teaching and, from her home in Dorset, continued to write, receiving the Crime Writers’ Association Silver Dagger in 1976. Gladys Mitchell died in 1983.

Rediscover Gladys Mitchell – one of the 'Big Three' female crime fiction writers alongside Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers. 
 
Hillmaston School has chosen The Mikado for their next school performance and, in recognition of her generous offer to finance the production, their meek and self-effacing arithmetic mistress is offered a key role. But when she disappears mid-way through the opening night performance and is later found dead, unconventional psychoanalyst and sleuth Mrs Bradley is called in to investigate. To her surprise she soon discovers that the hapless teacher had quite a number of enemies - all with a motive for murder... 
 
Opinionated, unconventional, unafraid... If you like Poirot and Miss Marple, you’ll love Mrs Bradley.

Death and the Maiden

READ ALL AGATHA CHRISTIE? TRY A VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERY. 
A banana-grower, Winchester (and maybe naiads) all feature in a brilliantly witty murder mystery from one of the queens of Golden Age crime fiction.

A VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERY 
Rediscover Gladys Mitchell – one of the 'Big Three' female crime fiction writers alongside Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers. 
 
When former banana-grower Edris Tidson hears of the possible sighting of a water-naiad he insists that his wife, her aunt Prissie and Prissie's young ward Connie, travel with him to Winchester in search of the nymph. As tensions rise between Connie and Edris, Prissie invites the renowned psychoanalyst, and unrivalled detective, Mrs Bradley to join them and unofficially observe Edris and his growing obsession. Then two young boys are found drowned and speculation mounts that the naiad is luring them to her deaths. Can Mrs Bradley unravel the mysteries hidden within the river? 
 
Opinionated, unconventional, unafraid... If you like Poirot and Miss Marple, you’ll love Mrs Bradley.

The Mystery of a Butcher's Shop

READ ALL AGATHA CHRISTIE? TRY A VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERY. 
Provincial politics and butchery...blackmail and murder...a classic murder mystery from one of the queens of Golden Age crime fiction

Rediscover Gladys Mitchell – one of the 'Big Three' female crime fiction writers alongside Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers. 
 
When Rupert Sethleigh's body is found one morning, laid out in the village butcher shop but minus its head, the inhabitants of Wandles Parva aren't particularly upset. Sethleigh was a blackmailing moneylender and when the peerless detective and renowned psycholanalyst Mrs Bradley begins her investigation she finds no shortage of suspects. It soon transpires that most of the village seem to have been wandering about Manor Woods, home of the mysterious druidic stone on which Sethleigh's blood is found splashed, on the night he was murdered, but can she eliminate the red herrings and catch the real killer? 
 
Opinionated, unconventional, unafraid... If you like Poirot and Miss Marple, you’ll love Mrs Bradley.

Classic Radio Crime

The Mrs Bradley Mysteries

Mary Wimbush stars as amateur sleuth Mrs Bradley in these two full-cast dramatisations of stories by Gladys Mitchell

Mary Wimbush stars as unconventional psychoanalyst sleuth Mrs Bradley in these two full-cast dramatisations of stories by Gladys Mitchell. Colourful, cynical, intimidating and extremely intelligent, Mrs Bradley is one of the most unorthodox detectives in the history of Golden Age crime fiction. The heroine of 66 novels by Gladys Mitchell, she has also appeared in several radio adaptations and a BBC TV series starring Diana Rigg. 
 
In these two dramas, she puts her extraordinary mind to work investigating cases of disguise, dismemberment, mayhem and murder. In Speedy Death, a country house in the 1920s is rocked by a murder which takes place in a room which is first locked, then later unlocked. A startling secret is uncovered, and as fingers point and the suspects begin to turn on each other, another death occurs… The Mystery of a Butcher’s Shop sees Mrs Bradley probing some alarming events in the village of Wandles Parva, as Rupert Sethleigh goes missing and a headless body is found jointed in the butcher’s shop. 
 
These entertaining dramatisations, first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1990 and 1991, star Mary Wimbush as Mrs Bradley, with Leslie Phillips as Carstairs. 
 
Classic Radio Crime: presenting vintage detectives for your investigation!

St Peter's Finger

READ ALL AGATHA CHRISTIE? TRY A VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERY 
A double murder at convent school...a classic murder mystery from one of the queen's of Golden Age crime fiction

St. Peter's Finger is the kind of book that gave Gladys Mitchell a reputation as one of England's best crime writers

There are many other good detective writers...there is Gladys Mitchell with her fascinating Mrs Bradley, ugly as a toad and armed with the latest up-to-date theories of psychology

Easily the best woman detective in fiction

Gladys Maude Winifred Mitchell – or ‘The Great Gladys’ as Philip Larkin called her – was born in 1901, in Cowley in Oxfordshire. She graduated in history from University College London and in 1921 began her long career as a teacher. Her hobbies included architecture and writing poetry. She studied the works of Sigmund Freud and her interest in witchcraft was encouraged by her friend, the detective novelist Helen Simpson. 
Her first novel, Speedy Death, was published in 1929 and introduced readers to Beatrice Adela Lestrange Bradley, the detective heroine of a further sixty six crime novels. She wrote at least one novel a year throughout her career and was an early member of the Detection Club, alongside Agatha Christie, G.K Chesterton and Dorothy Sayers.In 1961 she retired from teaching and, from her home in Dorset, continued to write, receiving the Crime Writers’ Association Silver Dagger in 1976. Gladys Mitchell died in 1983.

A VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERY 
Rediscover Gladys Mitchell – one of the 'Big Three' female crime fiction writers alongside Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers. 
 
Mrs Bradley, renowned psychologist and private detective, is summoned to the convent school of St Peter’s Finger, where a girl’s body has been found in a bathtub – did Ursula kill herself, or, as the nuns fear, is a murderer at large in the school? 
 
Opinionated, unconventional, unafraid... If you like Poirot and Miss Marple, you’ll love Mrs Bradley.

My Bones Will Keep

READ ALL AGATHA CHRISTIE? TRY A VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERY 
Riddles surround the death of a cruel Scottish laird...a classic murder mystery from one of the queens of Golden Age crime fiction

Richly quirky books, full of dramatic plotting, vigorous behavior and ironic opinions

MORE VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERIES 
MARGERY ALLINGHAM 
Mystery Mile 
Police at the Funeral 
Sweet Danger 
Flowers for the Judge 
The Case of the Late Pig 
The Fashion in Shrouds 
Traitor’s Purse 
Coroner’s Pidgin 
More Work for the Undertaker 
The Tiger in the Smoke 
The Beckoning Lady 
Hide My Eyes 
The China Governess 
The Mind Readers 
Cargo of Eagles 
 
E. F. BENSON 
The Blotting Book 
The Luck of the Vails 
 
NICHOLAS BLAKE 
A Question of Proof 
Thou Shell of Death 
There’s Trouble Brewing 
The Beast Must Die 
The Smiler With the Knife 
Malice in Wonderland 
The Case of the Abominable Snowman 
Minute for Murder 
Head of a Traveller 
The Dreadful Hollow 
The Whisper in the Gloom 
End of Chapter 
The Widow’s Cruise 
The Worm of Death 
The Sad Variety 
The Morning After Death 
 
 EDMUND CRISPIN 
Buried for Pleasure 
The Case of the Gilded Fly 
Holy Disorders 
Love Lies Bleeding 
The Moving Toyshop 
Swan Song 
 
A. A. MILNE 
The Red House Mystery 
 
GLADYS MITCHELL 
Speedy Death 
The Mystery of a Butcher’s Shop 
The Longer Bodies 
The Saltmarsh Murders 
Death and the Opera 
The Devil at Saxon Wall 
Dead Men’s Morris 
Come Away, Death 
St Peter’s Finger 
Brazen Tongue 
Hangman’s Curfew 
When Last I Died 
Laurels Are Poison 
Here Comes a Chopper 
Death and the Maiden 
Tom Brown’s Body 
Groaning Spinney 
The Devil’s Elbow 
The Echoing Strangers 
Watson’s Choice 
The Twenty-Third Man 
Spotted Hemlock 
My Bones Will Keep 
Three Quick and Five Dead 
Dance to Your Daddy 
A Hearse on May-Day 
Late, Late in the Evening 
Fault in the Structure 
Nest of Vipers

A VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERY 
Rediscover Gladys Mitchell – one of the 'Big Three' female crime fiction writers alongside Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers. 
 
The famous psychoanalyst and detective Dame Beatrice Bradley and her feisty secretary, Laura, travel to Scotland for a conference. But when a series of mishaps lead Laura to the island of Tannasgan, she finds herself at the mercy of some menacing Scottish hospitality. Her strange adventure piques the interest of her employer, and local legends surrounding a cruel Laird lead the pair into a peculiar mystery. 
 
Opinionated, unconventional, unafraid... If you like Poirot and Miss Marple, you’ll love Mrs Bradley.

Fault in the Structure

READ ALL AGATHA CHRISTIE? TRY A VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERY 
Suspicious deaths...a rich inheritance...a classic murder mystery from one of the queens of Golden Age crime fiction

If a relaxing diversion is of the essence for a good holiday, a Gladys Mitchell novel is a must

Miss Mitchell is certainly the most perfect and pellucid prose-writer in crime fiction

She is one of the Big Three women detective writers

MORE VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERIES 
 MARGERY ALLINGHAM 
Mystery Mile 
Police at the Funeral 
Sweet Danger 
Flowers for the Judge 
The Case of the Late Pig 
The Fashion in Shrouds 
Traitor’s Purse 
Coroner’s Pidgin 
More Work for the Undertaker 
The Tiger in the Smoke 
The Beckoning Lady 
Hide My Eyes 
The China Governess 
The Mind Readers 
Cargo of Eagles 
 
E. F. BENSON 
The Blotting Book 
The Luck of the Vails 
 
NICHOLAS BLAKE 
A Question of Proof 
Thou Shell of Death 
There’s Trouble Brewing 
The Beast Must Die 
The Smiler With the Knife 
Malice in Wonderland 
The Case of the Abominable Snowman 
Minute for Murder 
Head of a Traveller 
The Dreadful Hollow 
The Whisper in the Gloom 
End of Chapter 
The Widow’s Cruise 
The Worm of Death 
The Sad Variety 
The Morning After Death 
 
EDMUND CRISPIN 
Buried for Pleasure 
The Case of the Gilded Fly 
Holy Disorders 
Love Lies Bleeding 
The Moving Toyshop 
Swan Song 
 
A. A. MILNE 
The Red House Mystery 
 
GLADYS MITCHELL 
Speedy Death 
The Mystery of a Butcher’s Shop 
The Longer Bodies 
The Saltmarsh Murders 
Death and the Opera 
The Devil at Saxon Wall 
Dead Men’s Morris 
Come Away, Death 
St Peter’s Finger 
Brazen Tongue 
Hangman’s Curfew 
When Last I Died 
Laurels Are Poison 
Here Comes a Chopper 
Death and the Maiden 
Tom Brown’s Body 
Groaning Spinney 
The Devil’s Elbow 
The Echoing Strangers 
Watson’s Choice 
The Twenty-Third Man 
Spotted Hemlock 
My Bones Will Keep 
Three Quick and Five Dead 
Dance to Your Daddy 
A Hearse on May-Day 
Late, Late in the Evening 
Fault in the Structure 
Nest of Vipers

A VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERY 
Rediscover Gladys Mitchell – one of the 'Big Three' female crime fiction writers alongside Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers. 
 
It occurred to Alfrist C Swinburne early in life that death was a solver of problems, particularly when it was visited on close family members who will leave behind a rich inheritance. 
Dame Beatrice Bradley, psychoanalyst and sleuth, first crosses paths with Swinburne when a woman's body is discovered in the cloisters of a women's college, but it is not until a dramatic performance of the Beggar's Opera that Dame Beatrice can unmask the secrets of Swinburne's chequered past. 
 
Opinionated, unconventional, unafraid... If you like Poirot and Miss Marple, you’ll love Mrs Bradley.

Spotted Hemlock

READ ALL AGATHA CHRISTIE? TRY A VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERY 
A phantom horseman...secret love affairs....a classic murder mystery from one of the queens of Golden Age crime fiction.

Miss Mitchell began her career in the golden age of detective fiction and maintained her highly individual talent through all the genre's vicissitudes

Gladys Maude Winifred Mitchell – or ‘The Great Gladys’ as Philip Larkin called her – was born in 1901, in Cowley in Oxfordshire. She graduated in history from University College London and in 1921 began her long career as a teacher. Her hobbies included architecture and writing poetry. She studied the works of Sigmund Freud and her interest in witchcraft was encouraged by her friend, the detective novelist Helen Simpson. 
 Her first novel, Speedy Death, was published in 1929 and introduced readers to Beatrice Adela Lestrange Bradley, the detective heroine of a further sixty six crime novels. She wrote at least one novel a year throughout her career and was an early member of the Detection Club, alongside Agatha Christie, G.K Chesterton and Dorothy Sayers.In 1961 she retired from teaching and, from her home in Dorset, continued to write, receiving the Crime Writers’ Association Silver Dagger in 1976. Gladys Mitchell died in 1983.

Rediscover Gladys Mitchell – one of the 'Big Three' female crime fiction writers alongside Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers. 
 
Could the dead body of a young student at a women’s agricultural college be connected to the appearance of a ghostly horseman patrolling the campus grounds? The witchlike Mrs Bradley, incomparable psychoanalyst and detective, is intrigued. Soon she uncovers secret love-affairs and petty thefts, and follows the trail to Scotland, Ireland and the south of Italy in order to root out the truth. 
 
Opinionated, unconventional, unafraid... If you like Poirot and Miss Marple, you’ll love Mrs Bradley.

A Hearse on May Day

READ ALL AGATHA CHRISTIE? TRY A VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERY 
Sinister goings-on in a sleepy English village...a classic murder mystery from one the queens of Golden Age crime fiction

Gladys Mitchell can always be relied upon for a packed and meaty novel, and an intelligent one too

Mrs Bradley is easily one of the most memorable personalities

The marvel is that although Miss Mitchell has been so prolific, she has also been so good

MORE VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERIES 
MARGERY ALLINGHAM 
Mystery Mile 
Police at the Funeral 
Sweet Danger 
Flowers for the Judge 
The Case of the Late Pig 
The Fashion in Shrouds 
Traitor’s Purse 
Coroner’s Pidgin 
More Work for the Undertaker 
The Tiger in the Smoke 
The Beckoning Lady 
Hide My Eyes 
The China Governess 
The Mind Readers 
Cargo of Eagles 
 
E. F. BENSON 
The Blotting Book 
The Luck of the Vails 
 
NICHOLAS BLAKE 
A Question of Proof 
Thou Shell of Death 
There’s Trouble Brewing 
The Beast Must Die 
The Smiler With the Knife 
Malice in Wonderland 
The Case of the Abominable Snowman 
Minute for Murder 
Head of a Traveller 
The Dreadful Hollow 
The Whisper in the Gloom 
End of Chapter 
The Widow’s Cruise 
The Worm of Death 
The Sad Variety 
The Morning After Death 
 
EDMUND CRISPIN 
Buried for Pleasure 
The Case of the Gilded Fly 
Holy Disorders 
Love Lies Bleeding 
The Moving Toyshop 
Swan Song 
 
A. A. MILNE 
The Red House Mystery 
 
GLADYS MITCHELL 
Speedy Death 
The Mystery of a Butcher’s Shop 
The Longer Bodies 
The Saltmarsh Murders 
Death and the Opera 
The Devil at Saxon Wall 
Dead Men’s Morris 
Come Away, Death 
St Peter’s Finger 
Brazen Tongue 
Hangman’s Curfew 
When Last I Died 
Laurels Are Poison 
Here Comes a Chopper 
Death and the Maiden 
Tom Brown’s Body 
Groaning Spinney 
The Devil’s Elbow 
The Echoing Strangers 
Watson’s Choice 
The Twenty-Third Man 
Spotted Hemlock 
My Bones Will Keep 
Three Quick and Five Dead 
Dance to Your Daddy 
A Hearse on May-Day 
Late, Late in the Evening 
Fault in the Structure 
Nest of Vipers

A VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERY 
Rediscover Gladys Mitchell – one of the 'Big Three' female crime fiction writers alongside Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers. 
 
Fenella, great-niece to the unorthodox psychoanalyst and sleuth Mrs Bradley, unwittingly stumbles upon a pagan ritual in the sleepy village of Seven Wells. When the village's pub landlord disappears, Fenella calls on her great aunt's expert advice to help her unravel the developing mysteries. Why was the squire of the village stabbed in the back? And what is the secret of the five skeletons in the crypt? 
 
Opinionated, unconventional, unafraid... If you like Poirot and Miss Marple, you’ll love Mrs Bradley.

Three Quick and Five Dead

READ ALL AGATHA CHRISTIE? TRY A VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERY 
A serial killer...Cryptic clues...a classic murder mystery from one of the queens of Golden Age crime fiction

Mrs. Bradley and her dapper chauffeur, George, drive about the countryside in a midnight-blue Rolls-Royce with full bar, and wherever they go, they find murder

I hope Vintage will keep on bringing them out - she's just such an interesting writer

Gladys Mitchell was an English schoolteacher and the author of over sixty novels featuring her unconventional heroine, Mrs Bradley. An early member of the Detection Club, alongside Agatha Christie, G.K Chesterton and Dorothy L. Sayers, she was awarded the Crime Writers Association Silver Dagger in 1976. Her hobbies included architecture and writing poetry. She studied the works of Sigmund Freud and her interest in witchcraft was encouraged by her friend, the detective novelist Helen Simpson.

A VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERY 
Rediscover Gladys Mitchell – one of the 'Big Three' female crime fiction writers alongside Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers. 
 
A young woman's body is discovered in the woods. She has been strangled and a quotation from Tennyson's 'In Memoriam' is pinned to her chest with a knitting needle. Soon after, another woman's body is found, in similar circumstances. Then a third body, a fourth, a fifth... What links the victims? Scotland Yard is baffled, and all the ingenuity and unorthodox methods of famous detective Mrs Bradley are needed in the hunt for the ruthless killer. 
 
Opinionated, unconventional, unafraid... If you like Poirot and Miss Marple, you’ll love Mrs Bradley.

Nest of Vipers

READ ALL AGATHA CHRISTIE? TRY A VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERY 
A house of suspects...a devilish plot...a classic murder mystery from one of the queens of Golden Age crime fiction

One of the "Big Three" female mystery novelists, judged the equal of Dorothy L Sayers and Agatha Christie, but that's not quite accurate - she's more like a mad combination of both

Gladys Mitchell can always be relied upon for a packed and meaty novel, and an intelligent one at that

A VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERY 
Rediscover Gladys Mitchell – one of the 'Big Three' female crime fiction writers alongside Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers. 
 
The tenants of Weston Pipers are horrified to discover that one among them, the reclusive Miss Minnie, has been elaborately and violently murdered, and that their young landlord, Chelion Piper, is the chief suspect. Piper is advised to write down his version of events for the noted criminologist and psychoanalyst Dame Beatrice Bradley, as her investigations uncover a junk shop with a secret room, a possible satanic cult and a veritable nest of vipers 
 
Opinionated, unconventional, unafraid... If you like Poirot and Miss Marple, you’ll love Mrs Bradley.

Dead Men's Morris

READ ALL AGATHA CHRISTIE? TRY A VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERY 
A ghostly apparition...an unexplained death...a classic murder mystery from one of the queens of Golden Age crime fiction

The mark of a Mitchell mystery is to lead us into familiar territory, there to shatter illusions of predictability

Mrs Lestrange Bradley...is by far the best and most vital English female detective

A VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERY 
Rediscover Gladys Mitchell – one of the 'Big Three' female crime fiction writers alongside Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers. 
 
A dead solicitor, a suspicious pig-farmer and a local ghost disturb Mrs Bradley’s holiday to Oxfordshire. Nothing is as it seems however, and the inimitable detective must work fast if she is to protect her nephew's household from a resourceful killer. 
 
Opinionated, unconventional, unafraid... If you like Poirot and Miss Marple, you’ll love Mrs Bradley.

Brazen Tongue

READ ALL AGATHA CHRISTIE? TRY A VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERY 
As the country readies for war in Europe, murder strikes much closer to home...a classic murder mystery from one of the queens of Golden Age crime fiction

MORE VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERIES 
 MARGERY ALLINGHAM 
Mystery Mile 
Police at the Funeral 
Sweet Danger 
Flowers for the Judge 
The Case of the Late Pig 
The Fashion in Shrouds 
Traitor’s Purse 
Coroner’s Pidgin 
More Work for the Undertaker 
The Tiger in the Smoke 
The Beckoning Lady 
Hide My Eyes 
The China Governess 
The Mind Readers 
Cargo of Eagles 
 
E. F. BENSON 
The Blotting Book 
The Luck of the Vails 
 
NICHOLAS BLAKE 
A Question of Proof 
Thou Shell of Death 
There’s Trouble Brewing 
The Beast Must Die 
The Smiler With the Knife 
Malice in Wonderland 
The Case of the Abominable Snowman 
Minute for Murder 
Head of a Traveller 
The Dreadful Hollow 
The Whisper in the Gloom 
End of Chapter 
The Widow’s Cruise 
The Worm of Death 
The Sad Variety 
The Morning After Death 
 
EDMUND CRISPIN 
Buried for Pleasure 
The Case of the Gilded Fly 
Holy Disorders 
Love Lies Bleeding 
The Moving Toyshop 
Swan Song 
 
A. A. MILNE 
The Red House Mystery 
 
GLADYS MITCHELL 
Speedy Death 
The Mystery of a Butcher’s Shop 
The Longer Bodies 
The Saltmarsh Murders 
Death and the Opera 
The Devil at Saxon Wall 
Dead Men’s Morris 
Come Away, Death 
St Peter’s Finger 
Brazen Tongue 
Hangman’s Curfew 
When Last I Died 
Laurels Are Poison 
Here Comes a Chopper 
Death and the Maiden 
Tom Brown’s Body 
Groaning Spinney 
The Devil’s Elbow 
The Echoing Strangers 
Watson’s Choice 
The Twenty-Third Man 
Spotted Hemlock 
My Bones Will Keep 
Three Quick and Five Dead 
Dance to Your Daddy 
A Hearse on May-Day 
Late, Late in the Evening 
Fault in the Structure 
Nest of Vipers

Rediscover Gladys Mitchell – one of the 'Big Three' female crime fiction writers alongside Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers. 
 
Europe is on the brink of war, but as the quiet village of Willington braces itself for bloodshed overseas, a killer strikes much closer to home. But what connects the murder of an escaped asylum patient, a local councillor and a young volunteer at the village’s air raid patrol centre? Only the exceptional Mrs Bradley, psychoanalyst and celebrated detective, can uncover the truth. 
 
Opinionated, unconventional, unafraid... If you like Poirot and Miss Marple, you’ll love Mrs Bradley.

The Devil's Elbow

READ ALL AGATHA CHRISTIE? TRY A VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERY 
A coach party of eccentrics...a murder and a puzzling clue...a classic murder mystery from one of the queens of Golden Age crime fiction.

A VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERY 
Rediscover Gladys Mitchell – one of the 'Big Three' female crime fiction writers alongside Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers. 
 
George Jeffries is attempting to guide a coach party of eccentrics around Scotland via the treacheous mountain known as The Devil's Elbow. But when one of the touring party is found dead, suspicion falls on the hapless Jeffries. His fiancee goes in tears to her employer, who happens to be the remarkable psychoanalyst and private investigator Mrs Bradley. Fortunately for all concerned Mrs Bradley takes the case, and employs all her singular talents in the task of finding the true murderer. 
 
Opinionated, unconventional, unafraid... If you like Poirot and Miss Marple, you’ll love Mrs Bradley.

Hangman's Curfew

READ ALL AGATHA CHRISTIE? TRY A VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERY 
Mystery begins on the moors...a classic detective story from one of the queens of Golden Age crime fiction

Gladys Maude Winifred Mitchell – or ‘The Great Gladys’ as Philip Larkin called her – was born in 1901, in Cowley in Oxfordshire. She graduated in history from University College London and in 1921 began her long career as a teacher. Her hobbies included architecture and writing poetry. She studied the works of Sigmund Freud and her interest in witchcraft was encouraged by her friend, the detective novelist Helen Simpson. 
Her first novel, Speedy Death, was published in 1929 and introduced readers to Beatrice Adela Lestrange Bradley, the detective heroine of a further sixty six crime novels. She wrote at least one novel a year throughout her career and was an early member of the Detection Club, alongside Agatha Christie, G.K Chesterton and Dorothy Sayers.In 1961 she retired from teaching and, from her home in Dorset, continued to write, receiving the Crime Writers’ Association Silver Dagger in 1976. Gladys Mitchell died in 1983..

A VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERY 
Rediscover Gladys Mitchell – one of the 'Big Three' female crime fiction writers alongside Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers. 
 
A friend staying with distinguished psychoanalyst and sometime detective Mrs Bradley is alarmed by a chance meeting with a pale young man who claims his uncle is being poisoned - is there a detective who could help discover the culprit? Mrs Bradley is soon on the case, but upon investigation it seems the uncle is in the best of health. But then the old man does indeed die suddenly, followed by his nephew, and Mrs Bradley finds herself in the murderer's firing line. 
 
Opinionated, unconventional, unafraid... If you like Poirot and Miss Marple, you’ll love Mrs Bradley.

Late, Late in the Evening

READ ALL AGATHA CHRISTIE? TRY A VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERY 
The murder of a girl disturbs an Oxfordshire village...a classic murder mystery from one of the queens of Golden Age crime fiction

A VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERY 
Rediscover Gladys Mitchell – one of the 'Big Three' female crime fiction writers alongside Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers. 
 
Margaret Clifton remembers the childhood summers spent with her brother and her uncles and aunts, exploring the village of Hill and studying the eccentric villagers. She remembers one particular summer, the summer of the Fair, when she discovered a grave-shaped hole in the floor of a run-down shack, and soon after a girl was found dead. The well-known detective Mrs Bradley came to investigate, and it became a summer no-one would forget. 
 
Opinionated, unconventional, unafraid... If you like Poirot and Miss Marple, you’ll love Mrs Bradley.

Laurels are Poison

READ ALL AGATHA CHRISTIE? TRY A VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERY 
An inexplicable disappeance...sinister practical jokes...a classic murder mystery from one of the queens of Golden Age crime fiction

A VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERY 
Rediscover Gladys Mitchell – one of the 'Big Three' female crime fiction writers alongside Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers. 
 
The witchlike psychologist and detective Mrs Bradley takes up the position of warden at a girl's college in order to investigate the ominous disappearance of her predecessor. Her arrival coincides with a series of sinister practical jokes - a student's hair is hacked off, clothes are slashed, then the cook's body is discovered in a river near the college. With the help of her sub-warden and a trio of intrepid students, Mrs Bradley hunts down the culprit. 
 
Opinionated, unconventional, unafraid... If you like Poirot and Miss Marple, you’ll love Mrs Bradley.

The Echoing Strangers

READ ALL AGATHA CHRISTIE? READ A VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERY 
Mysterious twins...a cricket match murder...a classic detective story from one of the queens of Golden age crime fiction

A crime writer who, in her day, ranked with Christie and Sayers

MORE VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERIES 
MARGERY ALLINGHAM 
Mystery Mile 
Police at the Funeral 
Sweet Danger 
Flowers for the Judge 
The Case of the Late Pig 
The Fashion in Shrouds 
Traitor’s Purse 
Coroner’s Pidgin 
More Work for the Undertaker 
The Tiger in the Smoke 
The Beckoning Lady 
Hide My Eyes 
The China Governess 
The Mind Readers 
Cargo of Eagles 
 
E. F. BENSON 
The Blotting Book 
The Luck of the Vails 
 
NICHOLAS BLAKE 
A Question of Proof 
Thou Shell of Death 
There’s Trouble Brewing 
The Beast Must Die 
The Smiler With the Knife 
Malice in Wonderland 
The Case of the Abominable Snowman 
Minute for Murder 
Head of a Traveller 
The Dreadful Hollow 
The Whisper in the Gloom 
End of Chapter 
The Widow’s Cruise 
The Worm of Death 
The Sad Variety 
The Morning After Death 
 
EDMUND CRISPIN 
Buried for Pleasure 
The Case of the Gilded Fly 
Holy Disorders 
Love Lies Bleeding 
The Moving Toyshop 
Swan Song 
 
A. A. MILNE 
The Red House Mystery 
 
GLADYS MITCHELL 
Speedy Death 
The Mystery of a Butcher’s Shop 
The Longer Bodies 
The Saltmarsh Murders 
Death and the Opera 
The Devil at Saxon Wall 
Dead Men’s Morris 
Come Away, Death 
St Peter’s Finger 
Brazen Tongue 
Hangman’s Curfew 
When Last I Died 
Laurels Are Poison 
Here Comes a Chopper 
Death and the Maiden 
Tom Brown’s Body 
Groaning Spinney 
The Devil’s Elbow 
The Echoing Strangers 
Watson’s Choice 
The Twenty-Third Man 
Spotted Hemlock 
My Bones Will Keep 
Three Quick and Five Dead 
Dance to Your Daddy 
A Hearse on May-Day 
Late, Late in the Evening 
Fault in the Structure 
Nest of Vipers

A VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERY 
Rediscover Gladys Mitchell – one of the 'Big Three' female crime fiction writers alongside Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers. 
 
Twin brothers Francis and Derek Caux are orphaned at the age of seven, and soon after separated by their grandfather, Sir Adrian, who all but abandons deaf-and-dumb Francis and takes the handsome Derek under his wing. But now the pair are brought together by a pair of murders and the attentions of the witchlike psychoanalyst-detective, Mrs Bradley. Do the brothers share a guilty conscience? 
 
Opinionated, unconventional, unafraid... If you like Poirot and Miss Marple, you’ll love Mrs Bradley.

Gladys Mitchell

Mrs Bradley is an amateur sleuth to rival Miss Marple… A cackling, leering, hooting delight… Added to the interest of the murder itself, we can delight in the picture of society that the novels afford, in the way that a photograph of a long-gone street can fascinate and charm… I just let it all wash over me, soak up the atmosphere, and revel in the character of the detective. I am delighted to have made Mrs Bradley’s acquaintance

One of the ‘Big Three’ female mystery novelists, judged the equal of Dorothy L Sayers and Agatha Christie

A classic Christmas murder mystery

The perfect classic crime story to cosy up with this winter. Amateur sleuth Mrs Bradley investigates a puzzling Christmas mystery . . . 
 
First published in 1936 as Dead Men's Morris. 
 
'Mrs Bradley is an amateur sleuth to rival Miss Marple... A delight' Guardian 
 
It is December and Mrs Bradley has left London behind for a relaxing visit to the Oxfordshire countryside. 
 
Then, on Christmas Eve, a local solicitor is found dead by the river. Everyone believes that he suffered a heart attack - but Mrs Bradley is suspicious, and is soon investigating a series of disturbing clues. 
 
As the frost thaws and spring begins, the inimitable detective must work fast if she is to protect the people close to her from a resourceful killer... 
 
'The equal of Dorothy L. Sayers and Agatha Christie' Independent

Gladys Mitchell

Praise for Death Comes at Christmas

Mrs Bradley is an amateur sleuth to rival Miss Marple… A cackling, leering, hooting delight… Added to the interest of the murder itself, we can delight in the picture of society that the novels afford, in the ...

One of the ‘Big Three’ female mystery novelists, judged the equal of Dorothy L Sayers and Agatha Christie

If a relaxing diversion is of the essence for a good holiday, a Gladys Mitchell novel is a must

Mrs Bradley is an amateur sleuth to rival Miss Marple… A cackling, leering, hooting delight… Added to the interest of the murder itself, we can delight in the picture of society that the novels afford, in the ...

One of the ‘Big Three’ female mystery novelists, judged the equal of Dorothy L Sayers and Agatha Christie

If a relaxing diversion is of the essence for a good holiday, a Gladys Mitchell novel is a must

Mrs Bradley is an amateur sleuth to rival Miss Marple… A cackling, leering, hooting delight… Added to the interest of the murder itself, we can delight in the picture of society that the novels afford, in the ...

One of the ‘Big Three’ female mystery novelists, judged the equal of Dorothy L Sayers and Agatha Christie

If a relaxing diversion is of the essence for a good holiday, a Gladys Mitchell novel is a must

Books by Gladys Mitchell

Articles featuring Gladys Mitchell

Books to get you in the mood for Christmas

Classic books all teens should own

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