Death at the Opera (Mrs. Bradley Mysteries, #5)

by Gladys Mitchell

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...

• Publish Date: 1934
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 5 June 2000
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Grayson & Grayson
• Edition: First US edition
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 248
• Language: English

Reviews

[brokentune]

I really like Mrs. Bradley as an eccentric sleuth but some of Mitchell's books are just too convoluted to be engaging throughout the whole of the story.

Certainly this one had a great premise - a body is found during a school production of The Mikado and the death is pronounced a suicide, even though the victim apparently managed to drown herself in a sink whilst sitting on a chair.

Circumstances and a whole cast of suspects persuade the schools headmaster to call on the psychological expertise of Mrs Bradley to find out the truth about the death.

I had seen the BBC adaptation of this installment and had rather high expectations, and unfortunately the book did not live up to it. This is one of the few instances where the adaptation seems to be better than the book, not only for starring Diana Rigg and David Tennant.


Review originally posted on BookLikes.