I have been meaning to read something by Gladys Mitchell since I read Ask a Policeman, all the way back in 2016. Ask a Policeman was a novel by the Detection Club, but since I wasn’t very familiar with all the authors, I didn’t really enjoy the book. Because of that, I made a mental note to read more of Dorothy Sayers, Gladys Mitchell, Anthony Berkeley, and the rest. Unfortunately, apart from Dorothy Sayers, the rest of the authors have been hard to get ahold of.

Speedy Death is the first of Mitchell’s stories and introduces Mrs Bradley, a psychoanalyst and extremely unconventional detective. But I’m getting ahead of myself. The story starts when Everard Mountjoy, legendary explorer, is found dead in the bath. Making things complicated is the fact that Mountjoy is actually a woman, not a man. Soon after, Dorothy, another one of the guests, is almost killed in bed.

Although the protagonist of the story, Mrs Bradley does not actually work with the police. In fact, the police distrust her! Mrs Bradley doesn’t even seem to be working for truth – she’s got her own agenda and she’s definitely going to carry it out (probably why the book ends in a trial).

I enjoyed this story very much. Mrs Bradley is an entertaining character – she definitely holds her own against Miss Marple and Poirot in terms of brains – and the fact that she relishes how creepy she appears shows her sense of humour. Carstairs, the closest thing to a sidekick Mrs Bradley has in this novel, was also entertaining. I really liked how all the characters in the house interacted with one another.

The police were interesting as well. While they are no match for Mrs Bradley, Inspector Boring is a persistent man who uses his brain. In any other novel (especially procedurals like Louise Penny’s), he’d be the protagonist. But he’s also a little too orthodox, so rooting for Mrs Bradley was a lot more fun.

I wonder why it’s so hard to get ahold of Mitchell’s stories. Speedy Death was entertaining and I enjoyed both the plot and the characters. I hope that more people will discover her works because they are fun, and I definitely need to look for more mysteries staring Mrs Bradley.