My M Author

Watson's Choice by Gladys Mitchell

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


"Wealthy and eccentric Sir Bohun Chantrey numbered among his enthusiasms an absorbing admiration for Sherlock Holmes. To celebrate that great man's anniversary, he gave a party at which guests were invited to impersonate characters from the Holmes stories. A good time would, no doubt, have been had by all -- if only the struggle for Sir Bohun's money had been less competitive, and if he himself had not, to the dismay and consternation of his relatives, suddenly announced his decision to marry a governess.

"Fortunately, Mrs. Beatrice Lestrange Bradley and her secretary Laura Menzies were among the guests, so that, when events began to go sour, they were on hand to investigate a rapidly intensifying mystery.

There was the unexpected meeting at a nearby inn; the sudden disappearance of the Lady in the Case; the menacing presence of Sir Bohun's toreador son. And, last but not least, there was the arrival, startling and unheralded, of the Hound of the Baskervilles ...

Watson's Choice, first published in 1955, is one of the best loved of Gladys Mitchell's many classic crime novels."
~~front flap

I've always liked this author in the past, and indeed have collected most of her books. This was a reread for me, and I was astonished to realize I didn't like it as much as I previously had done.

Possibly I'm just getting grumpy in my old age, but I think my taste in mysteries has changed somewhat over the years. I no longer care much for contrived plots, and endings that were impossible to figure out during the course of the book.