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

by Gladys Mitchell

[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.