Death at the Opera a [Paperback]

Mitchell Gladys (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 1990

An innocuous and timid school teacher is murdered during a performance of "The Mikado" and the Home Office psychiatric consultant Mrs Bradley once more steps into the breach.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

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. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Little Brown Paperbacks (a&C); New edition edition (November 1, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 074740254X
• ISBN-13: 978-0747402541
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,331,605 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Despite "Death in the Wet," Not Wet Behind the Ears, June 8, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Death at the Opera (Black Dagger Crime) (Hardcover)

The first Gladys Mitchell I ever read, and, again, one of her best. The plot involves three separate strands, both built around the various notions of death by drowning: the death of a snooping schoolmistress in the bathroom at the performance of The Mikado; the death of a madwoman in an asylum who fell into an ornamental pond; and an acquitted wife killer, George Bryan Cutler, based on George Joseph Smith, murdering two other people, and attempting to murder Mrs. Bradley. The ending is ingenious, with one of the most incredible motives ever to grace a detective fiction novel, though the book shares some similarities with "Speedy Death" and "St. Peter's Finger," in the scene of the crime and the method.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An engrossing whodunit that is suitable for a nice day at the beach or for translation into a PBS movie, April 2, 2006

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Death at the Opera: (Death in the Wet) (Paperback)

Charged with the mission of capturing mystery writers from the Golden Age, the Rue Morgue Press has now reprinted such greats as Dorothy Bowers, Constance & Gwenyth Little, Maureen Sarsfield, Margaret Scherf and many others. Gladys Mitchell is among those greats, having been compared to Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers. Mitchell's output was 66 mysteries featuring Mrs. Bradley, a dashing and colorful woman with knowledge of both psychology and the law. DEATH AT THE OPERA was filmed for British television, although details of the book were changed. Diana Rigg portrayed Mrs. Bradley.

Calma Ferris, the unassuming arithmetic teacher in Hillmaston Coeducational Day School, has decided to underwrite the school's latest production, THE MIKADO. She is pressed into service as Katisha, a part for which she is woefully unprepared. Ferris has an uncanny knack of offending people, and thus ends up murdered before the second act of the opera. Enter Mrs. Beatrice Lestrange Bradley, called in by the publicity-minded headmaster to ascertain just who killed the quiet and virtuous Miss Ferris. But first, Mrs. Bradley has to take matters in hand:

"'It seems to me,' Mrs. Bradley remarked, 'that the evidence in support of the theory that Miss Ferris was murdered in the lobby is sufficiently strong to warrant further investigation, but not sufficiently tangible to offer to the authorities. I have reason to believe'-she took out her notebook-'that, as the result of a collision in the corridor, Miss Ferris had her glasses broken and sustained a small deep cut just beneath one eye. She went into the water lobby to bathe the cut, and I have not found out yet that anyone went with her.'"

Mitchell's style of writing is quite formal and extremely articulate, and her command of the plot and facts points to an exacting and logical mind. Mrs. Bradley is a kind woman who has no time for fools, and her character is at once a little repulsive (with claw type of hands and a beak like face) and fascinating. She puts her suspects at their ease until they reveal themselves. DEATH AT THE OPERA is an engrossing whodunit that is suitable for a nice day at the beach or for translation into a PBS movie. Angela Lansbury might be a great Mrs. Bradley!

Shelley Glodowski
Senior Reviewer

4.0 out of 5 stars Talk, talk, talk -- but not boring, January 20, 2011

By 

Ron "[e-mail]" (Whidbey Island, WA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Death at the Opera: (Death in the Wet) (Paperback)

Although not much action takes place (it's mostly conversations between Mrs. Bradley and various suspects or interested parties) interest is maintained throughout. (About 7/8th's of the way through there seems to be an entirely different story introduced, but it's all connected in the end.) Mitchell is such a good writer that the dialogue doesn't get tiresome and the outcome -- while it may not be entirely satisfactory to some readers -- is logical.

While this was an enjoyable read, thinking about the plot and motives afterwards started me to feel it didn't really hold together that well. Plus there were a few too many coincidences for my taste.