The Saltmarsh Murders by Gladys Mitchell


published 1932




The Saltmarsh Murders is one of Gladys Mitchell’s books that most people would put in their top 10 – although one of the interesting things about her is the lack of agreement on a canon… Look on Jason Half’s excellent tribute site, The Stone House, for a very varied collection of rankings for her books… great fun to read.

But when we discussed The Great Gladys at the Bodies From the Library conference, it was apparent that most people like this one a lot, and would recommend to the Gladys rookie. It is narrated by the hilarious young curate Noel Wells – who is both a reliable and unreliable narrator. The verdict is generally that he is like a PG Wodehouse character, and that often seems true. He is also quite honest and funny about his shortcomings, and is not always keen to get too involved in physical adventures. He is terrified of (series detective) Mrs Bradley, but then that is only good sense – so he should be.

Saltmarsh is one of Mitchell’s cheerfully horrible villages – starting with the vicarage. The vicar (Noel’s boss) and his wife are both fairly awful in their own ways. The village is agog with wondering who made the vicarage housemaid pregnant. And then pretty much throughout the book they are agog to know what has happened to her – supposedly she is in an upstairs bedroom in the pub. Who IS the father, and where is the child, and why has no-one seen the mother?




There’s a bohemian menage in the offing, another Mitchell favourite. There’s a loopy lady who compares everyone to an animal. And there is a love interest for Noel – the vicar’s ward, Daphne. There is a hilarious running theme where Noel and she are plainly getting together the whole time to canoodle, but this is always described otherwise in his narrative in various inventive ways.

The book has a brilliant beginning, and is very funny throughout.

The plot is -as ever – rather hard to describe or explain. This is one of the books that gives you Mrs Bradley’s notes at the end, which is very helpful, though I still wouldn’t want to answer a detailed test on who did what, when.

I once did a Halloween piece for the Guardian on digging up bodies, exhumations and so on. I missed a trick really, because I didn’t feature Gladys Mitchell – instances abound in her books, and people are always ending up in the wrong coffin, and we all have to work out when and how the substitution occurred. I thought my notes here had drifted across from The Devil at Saxon Wall, last week’s post, or Laurels are Poison (coming soon) but no – it does keep happening. I always say in a Patricia Wentworth book, make sure you don’t borrow a flamboyant item of clothing. In Gladys Mitchell, make sure someone identifies you properly before you are buried, if you want to rest easy.

There’s a village fete, and various social events – one of the things about Mitchell books is that they often contain scenes that would be commonplace in other Golden Age books of the era, but somehow things don’t pan out how you would expect them to in those other books.

Noel is dressing up as a gypsy fortune-teller:



“I vote we make it sixpence, with an extra sixpence for advice about their love affairs… [the vicar and wife] might not like the idea of the curate doing a stunt like that” – so of course the answer is to keep it quiet, not, like, not do it.

Picture of children running a race from State Library of new South Wales, 1937. They look like so many Shirley Temples… (and it’s the boys' races everyone in the book is worried about: "Briggs is entering the race in order to hack Oliver on the ankle as they fight for inside places on the bend".)

Cora, the showgirl in the bohemian household, gets rather a raw deal, so I found a very nice picture for her I consider. Young woman in a kimono by Friedrich August Herkendell.

The gypsy dancer is from the NYPL’s wonderful collection

More Gladys all over the blog – hit the label below – and more to come..

Comments

  1. That's the thing about a Mitchell novel, Moira, at least as I see it. It can be very hard to describe the plot, even if one's not concerned with spoilers. But the settings (both physical and social) are so well done in her books, and I do like the wit in them. You make an interesting point about the characters. She's done some other very quirky characters in other novels, too. Hmm....that might be an interesting thing for you to post about; there's a lot on offer there, in my opinion. You would do a great post on it!

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    1. That's a great summing up of Mitchell, Margot. I think she's unusual in that what puts off some people is exactly what appeals to others. I know I did not enjoy reading her when I first tried her, but now I love her.

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  2. Last Sunday afternoon I read Death and the Maiden and by around the two-third mark I ground to a halt. I felt dazed - and it wasn't just the heat. I skipped to the end and the motivation for the murders is ludicrous! I mean, you expect a certain amount of that with GM, but this was just too much. So I am afraid it is thumbs down for that one. But I do remember The Saltmarsh Murders as being pretty good.

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    1. That made me laugh Chrissie! I have just been reading that one too, but it was hugely helped by the fact that it is set in my home town, and very recognizably so, and I was intrigued by her description of here, so long ago...

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  3. Would it be a good first Mitchell to read?

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    1. Hi Johan -- Moira can weigh in, but I would say The Saltmarsh Murders is a fine place to start. Just remember one delightful point: other books in the Mrs Bradley are going to deliver a completely different tone and style. I read The Rising of the Moon first (nostalgic, beautifully rendered childhood tale), then Saltmarsh (Wodehousian and full of comic energy), then When Last I Died (darkly witty, tinged with the supernatural) and after those three, I was hooked for life. Happy reading!

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    2. Thanks Jason! And yes I agree, Johan, this is a very good one to start on. It has a lot to recommend it, and is somehow very complete and satisfying as a story.

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  4. Sounds great. Who doesn't love a bohemian menage, not to mention a nutty lady who compares people to animals? I've yet to read anything by Gladys Mitchell, but you've sold me on her with your post...

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    1. Thanks Jacqui - just be prepared for an unusual style, and she is rather a marmite author. But you should give her a chance. I think with your interest in the eras she was writing you would find the details fascinating.

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  5. If I remember rightly, it's the lady who identifies people with animals who first calls Mrs B a crocodile.

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    1. Oh that's interesting, I hadn't quite realized that, but I'm sure you are right. It really stuck...

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  6. Wonderful new GM review! The Saltmarsh Murders was and is the book I would most want to adapt as a film screenplay. Even written in 1932, in the heyday of both Christie's Mayhem Parva stories and Wodehouse's vapid narrators, the story still feels meta, as if Mitchell were having great fun puncturing the conventions of the village murder mystery by overlaying social comedy on top of it. Just as with the culprit's motive in Speedy Death, it seems like the motive and murderer in Saltmarsh speak volumes about how a young GM viewed the repressed "respectable" people in society. It's also not coincidence that Mrs Croc (via her creator) chooses to handle both characters in a rather unconventional way.

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    1. Yes indeed, and yes it would make a marvellous drama - we can but hope someone will have the sense to dig them out again.

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    2. by the way, what did you think of the Diana Rigg series Jason?

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