Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey

First Line: "Aunt Bee," said Jane, breathing heavily into her soup, "was Noah a cleverer back-room boy than Ulysses, or was Ulysses a cleverer back-room boy than Noah?"

On the eve of his twenty-first birthday, Simon Ashby is poised to inherit Latchetts, a very profitable horse farm in the south of England. But then his older twin brother Patrick comes home. Patrick, who was presumed dead by suicide at the age of thirteen.

Patrick is, in fact, an orphan named Brat Farrar who has an uncanny resemblance to Simon. Brat has been carefully and expertly coached in all things Patrick, and he's so successful that he's welcomed back into the Ashby family.

It looks as though Brat is going to be able to pull off the deception until old secrets emerge that put not only his plan but also his life in danger.

~

For the most part, Golden Age mystery writers leave me cold. There is one exception, however: Josephine Tey. Her originality of thought, her dialogue, her characters, her subtlety... she just suits my mystery-loving mind right down to the ground. Brat Farrar, like Tey's The Daughter of Time, is considered to be one of the best mysteries ever written, and I'm not going to argue with this assessment.

There's something about how Tey lets us in on the con from the beginning. We know Brat is not Patrick Ashby, but as we see things through his eyes, and as we see the effect he has on the people around him, we almost want to flout the law and let him assume Patrick's place for time and all eternity. 

Let's see... we know Brat is an imposter, and it's really not all that difficult to deduce what really happened to Patrick eight years ago. The real mystery is how everything is going to turn out for Brat. We know he's done wrong, but we still want him to be happy. We still want him living at Latchetts. And as for Latchetts, even Dick Francis couldn't do a better job at depicting a horse farm.

After thoroughly enjoying Brat Farrar, I have to wonder why there hasn't been a modern film adaptation of it because it would be perfect. (Who cares that the whole situation could be solved by a DNA test today? The book is set right after World War II.) What I don't have to wonder about is which Josephine Tey mystery I will be savoring next. I am slowly working my way through her books, and enjoying myself every step of the way.

Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey

ISBN: 9780684803852

Scribner © 1997

Originally published 1950.

Paperback, 288 pages

 

Classic Mystery, Standalone

Rating: A+

Source: Purchased from Book Outlet.

Speedy Death by Gladys Mitchell

First Line: The two young men had been waiting exactly two hours and three minutes.

When Alastair Bing's dinner guests wonder why renowned explorer Everard Mountjoy isn't at the dining table, they begin to search and soon find the explorer's corpse in the tub in a locked upstairs bathroom. Adding to the shock and mystification of all is the fact that the dead man was actually a woman. One of the dinner guests, psychoanalyst Mrs. Beatrice Lestrange Bradley, remains calm and observant while wild theories are flying about. Through screams in the night, further drowning attempts, and poisoning will Mrs. Bradley be able to identify a dangerous killer?

This is one example of having my expectations splintered due to watching the BBC's "Mrs. Bradley Mysteries" before reading this book. In the television series, Mrs. Bradley is portrayed by the elegant Diana Rigg, so I had her appearance firmly fixed in my mind. Gladys Mitchell's Mrs. Bradley could not be more different-- and it took me half the book to get Diana Rigg out of my head!

Gladys Mitchell's Mrs. Bradley is old, small, and the words used to describe her are "bird" (think vulture, not songbird), "reptile," and "dinosaur." She doesn't go out of her way to converse with others, wears tatty clothes, and wears her eccentricity like a badge of honor. The further into the book I got, the more I realized that she relished intimidating and shocking the other guests in the country house-- that is, when they noticed her at all. (The woman is very adept at flying beneath the radar.) The one thing that I didn't particularly care for was the fact that Mitchell seemed to keep all her characters at a distance from the reader. I almost wished Speedy Death had been written in the first person so I could worm my way further into Mrs. Bradley's head.

What absolutely delighted me besides the main character was the originality of the plot. I'm not about to give the ending away, but Mrs. Bradley is far from being the usual amateur sleuth, and she's not afraid of getting her hands dirty. She's definitely the type of character I want to know more about, so I'll be reading more in the series. Reading this first book about Mrs. Bradley put a big smile on my face, but then... I'm not exactly normal either!

Speedy Death by Gladys Mitchell

eISBN: 9781477818718

Thomas and Mercer © 2014

Originally published in 1929

eBook, 266 pages

Amateur Sleuth, #1 Mrs. Bradley mystery

Rating: B+

Source: Purchased from Amazon. 

Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers

First Line: "Oh, damn!" said Lord Peter Wimsey at Picadilly Circus.

I irritate myself sometimes. Although I've tried a few times to read Golden Age mysteries, they just don't seem to be for me. However, time will pass and once again I'll begin to feel that I'm missing out on something. This is why I picked up Dorothy L. Sayers' very first Lord Peter Wimsey mystery, Whose Body? I've always had the feeling that-- if I liked any Golden Age mystery writer-- I would like her.

In this book, Lord Peter's mother the Dowager Duchess of Denver has called to tell him that the architect she's hired to do some work on her local church has stumbled across a body in his bath wearing nothing put a pair of pince-nez. London's Inspector Sugg is convinced that Thipps the architect is guilty. 

While Lord Peter begins his investigation for Thipps, he learns that his friend Inspector Parker is looking into the disappearance of Sir Reuben Levy, a famous financier. Lord Peter must find out what's happened to Sir Reuben as well as identify that body in Thipps' bath to get the mild-mannered architect out of hot water.

After reading the first few chapters of this book, I almost gave up in disgust. The pages were filled with dialogue that was supposed to be sparkling and witty but only sounded like dated, superficial piffle. (See? I may not have read Sayers before, but I've evidently been able to mine a nugget or two from various sources.)

Fortunately the book settled down and steered clear of conversational piffle throughout the rest of the story, and I actually enjoyed watching Wimsey figure out identities, timelines, and what actually happened. In fact I enjoyed it enough to start looking for the second book in the series. All you Golden Age mystery lovers-- there may be hope for me yet!
 

Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers

ASIN: B00BX8U56M

Open Road Media © 2013

eBook, 208 pages

Private Investigator, #1 Lord Peter Wimsey mystery

Rating: B-

Source: Purchased from Amazon