Comments: 8
Hmmm. Potshot at Dorothy L. Sayers, that concealed motherhood? Would Gladys Mitchell have known?
BrokenTune 8 years ago
Not a potshot. At least, I don't think so. The concealment is not as much the focus as the two opposing characters of Mrs B and Ferdinand.
Oh, OK. Just wondering, because it's such an obvious coincidence -- though Sayers was *much* more secretive about it than Mrs. B. in this scene, of course ... she was undoubtedly very proud of her son, but even he himself didn't know until well into his grown-up years.

Still, I can't help wondering how Sayers must have felt about that little detail in Mitchell's book when she first read it!
BrokenTune 8 years ago
Mitchell's book Death at the Opera would have been more of a dig if she had intended to dig at Sayers. I have a feeling, tho, that this is just coincidence. I can't see it as a dig at Sayers. Mitchell threw digs at Christie quite openly, so I can't see why she would have been more covert with Sayers. Also, she isn't the only Golden Age Mystery writer to use the "secret child" plot device.
Look at Hercule Poirot's Christmas, or Sad Cypress...
BrokenTune 8 years ago
Oh, btw., Mrs Bradley is not secretive about her son at all. They don't mention it at the court but there is no secrecy about Ferdinand whatsoever. They have dinner together later on in the book. It is just that Mrs B and F have little in common, as he (she says in a later book) reminds her of his father - her first husband. (She always emphasises the "first"...)
Oh great, just keep tossing Mitchell titles at me! :) Between you and Mr. Edwards I'll have my priorities on those covered in no time at all ... :D
Murder by Death 8 years ago
I've just ordered this one and it took a LOT to keep from ordering the rest while I was at it.
BrokenTune 8 years ago
This one was one of the better ones. Try this one first, because Mitchell gets a lot of mixed reviews.