The Saltmarsh Murders (Mrs. Bradley Mysteries, #4)

by Gladys Mitchell

Noel Wells, curate in the sleepy village of Saltmarsh, likes to spend his time dancing in the study with the vicar's niece, until one day the vicar's unpleasant wife discovers her unmarried housemaid is pregnant and trouble begins.

It is left to Noel to call for the help of sometime-detective and full-time psychoanalyst Mrs Bradley, who sets out on an unnervingly unorthodox investigation into the mysterious pregnancy, an investigation that also takes in a smuggler, the village lunatic, a missing corpse, a public pillory, an exhumation and, of course, a murderer.

Mrs. Bradley is easily one of the most memorable personalities in crime fiction and in this classic whodunit she proves that some English villages can be murderously peaceful.

• Publish Date: 1933
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Macrae-Smith
• Edition: First US Edition
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 288
• Language: English

Reviews

[brokentune]

This was not a great pick for me.

Not only is this one that has not dated well (and even seems anachronistic for the time is was written), but this is one that heavily draws on an admiration of Freud, which is channeled through Mrs Bradley at every opportunity.

This is also another one where Mrs Bradley seems to call everyone "Dear Child", which was something that grated on me in another book in this series also.

As for the murders, ... by about the half-way point of this book, I didn't even care about the plot anymore.