Come Away Death by Gladys Mitchell

 

Trip to Greek temple is both eventful and educational

Come Away, Death is one of
Mitchell's more bizarre mysteries

In what I found to be the most bizarre detective novel by Gladys Mitchell I have read so far, Mrs Bradley goes on a strange tour of Greece led by an amateur archaeologist, who is the husband of one of her friends, Marie Hopkinson.

Sir Rudri Hopkinson, who is regarded by many people as eccentric, but is suspected of being deranged by others, takes his children and some of their friends, a rival scholar, a photographer to record events, and psychoanalyst Mrs Beatrice Lestrange Bradley, to the Temple of Eleusis to try to recreate ancient rituals as closely as possible in the hope of summoning the goddess Demeter.

Some strange events occur during the journey and, after one of the group disappears, and a severed head turns up in a box of snakes, Mrs Bradley decides she needs to investigate what is going on.

In her eighth novel to feature the psychoanalyst and amateur detective Mrs Bradley, Gladys Mitchell breaks with convention by letting the inevitable murder occur a long way into the story, which was unusual at the time the novel was written.

Mrs Bradley makes friends with some small boys who are in the party and enlists their help with her sleuthing. She once again shows herself to be at ease with young people, perhaps reflecting qualities possessed by Gladys Mitchell, who was a teacher for many years.

One of the boys had been quick to point out to her at the start of the expedition that the number of travellers in Sir Rudri’s tour group was an unlucky thirteen, but Mrs Bradley says she is not superstitious.

Gladys Mitchell took her title from the
lyric of a song in Twelfth Night

And another member of the party, who claims to have the gift of seeing into the future, has said she could foresee death.

When the inevitable demise occurs, Mrs Bradley, who is herself highly educated, uses both her knowledge of Greek mythology and background in psychology to help her solve the case.

I found the way Gladys Mitchell tells the story, without losing my interest despite the many references to Greek mythology made along the way, is testimony to her talent as a writer.

The title of the 1937 mystery, Come Away, Death, was taken from a line in the lyric of a song in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. One of the characters sings: 

'Come away, come away, death, and in sad cypress let me be laid; Fly away, Fly away, breath, I am slain by a fair cruel maid.'

It is interesting to note that Agatha Christie may have got the idea for the title of her 1940 Poirot novel, Sad Cypress, from the same song written by Shakespeare.

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