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When Last I Died by Gladys Mitchell (1941; Mrs Bradley #13)
This book has an unusually complex story structure, which was really fun! There's a semi-epistolary portion, where Mrs Bradley is introduced to the cold case by a journal kept by the purported murderer (who was later acquitted, then committed suicide). There's a haunted house and a couple of spiritualists, a disputed inheritance, a mysteriously reclusive sister with a tragic past, and two missing teenaged boys who ran away from a juvenile correctional facility. There are multiple cold cases, in fact, and the records of a past murder trial, and then there's another murder trial.
The portions of the book devoted to reproducing the journal, a published book, and a later diary aren't most of the book, as is the case with, for example, Dorothy Sayers's stunning The Documents in the Case, but they aren't just short excerpts, either. I liked those bits a lot, but I loved how varied this novel is - the document portions, the interviews with rambling old ladies and paging over antique photo albums, the court scenes, the action scenes, some episodes of espionage, and playful dialogue with Mrs Bradley's family and her grandson, who accidentally supplies the impetus for the plot.
There definitely IS gender in this book, and in many ways it contains ideas about gender that are of its time, but the book is definitely about femininity and female life - clearly interesting subjects to Gladys Mitchell - and I think the ideas on the page are earnest and complex for the most part, not moralizing or Highly Unfortunate like some of the overtones of Speedy Death and Death at the Opera. 5/5, maybe? Higher than 4/5, for sure.
The portions of the book devoted to reproducing the journal, a published book, and a later diary aren't most of the book, as is the case with, for example, Dorothy Sayers's stunning The Documents in the Case, but they aren't just short excerpts, either. I liked those bits a lot, but I loved how varied this novel is - the document portions, the interviews with rambling old ladies and paging over antique photo albums, the court scenes, the action scenes, some episodes of espionage, and playful dialogue with Mrs Bradley's family and her grandson, who accidentally supplies the impetus for the plot.
There definitely IS gender in this book, and in many ways it contains ideas about gender that are of its time, but the book is definitely about femininity and female life - clearly interesting subjects to Gladys Mitchell - and I think the ideas on the page are earnest and complex for the most part, not moralizing or Highly Unfortunate like some of the overtones of Speedy Death and Death at the Opera. 5/5, maybe? Higher than 4/5, for sure.
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