Contents Cover About the Book About the Author Also by Gladys Mitchell Vintage Murder Mysteries Title Page Chapter One: No Haste to the Wedding Chapter Two: Rumours of Mayering Chapter Three: Chance Encounter Chapter Four: The Signs of the Zodiac Chapter Five: Mayering Eve Chapter Six: Mayering Morn Chapter Seven: The Green Man Chapter Eight: Douston Hall Chapter Nine: Unusual Honeymoon Chapter Ten: The Charnel House Chapter Eleven: Witch’s Sabbath Chapter Twelve: Unconsecrated Ground Chapter Thirteen: A Little Nearer the Truth Chapter Fourteen: Jack-in-the-Green Chapter Fifteen: Substitution Chapter Sixteen: Friendless Bodies Chapter Seventeen: Recapitulation Chapter Eighteen: Fresh Evidence Chapter Nineteen: The Lady Mother Copyright About the Book Fenella unwittingly stumbles upon a pagan ritual in the sleepy village of Seven Wells. When the village’s pub landlord disappears, Fenella calls on the expert advice of her great aunt – who happens to be the psychoanalyst and master sleuth Mrs Bradley – to help her unravel the developing mysteries. Why was the squire of the village stabbed in the back? And what is the secret of the five skeletons in the crypt? About the Author Gladys Maude Winifred Mitchell – or ‘The Great Gladys’ as Philip Larkin called her – was born in 1901, in Cowley in Oxfordshire. She graduated in history from University College London and in 1921 began her long career as a teacher. She studied the works of Sigmund Freud and attributed her interest in witchcraft to the influence of her friend, the detective novelist Helen Simpson. Her first novel, Speedy Death, was published in 1929 and introduced readers to Beatrice Adela Lestrange Bradley, the heroine of a further sixty six crime novels. She wrote at least one novel a year throughout her career and was an early member of the Detection Club, alongside Agatha Christie, G.K Chesterton and Dorothy Sayers. In 1961 she retired from teaching and, from her home in Dorset, continued to write, receiving the Crime Writers’ Association Silver Dagger in 1976. Gladys Mitchell died in 1983. ALSO BY GLADYS MITCHELL Speedy Death The Mystery of a Butcher’s Shop The Longer Bodies The Saltmarsh Murders Death and the Opera The Devil at Saxon Wall Dead Men’s Morris Come Away, Death St Peter’s Finger Printer’s Error Hangman’s Curfew When Last I Died Laurels Are Poison The Worsted Viper Sunset Over Soho My Father Sleeps The Rising of the Moon Here Comes a Chopper Death and the Maiden Tom Brown’s Body Groaning Spinney The Devil’s Elbow The Echoing Strangers Merlin’s Furlong Watson’s Choice Faintley Speaking Twelve Horses and the Hangman’s Noose The Twenty-Third Man Spotted Hemlock The Man Who Grew Tomatoes Say It With Flowers The Nodding Canaries My Bones Will Keep Adders on the Heath Death of the Delft Blue Pageant of a Murder The Croaking Raven Skeleton Island Three Quick and Five Dead Dance to Your Daddy Gory Dew Lament for Leto A Hearse on May-Day The Murder of Busy Lizzie Winking at the Brim A Javelin for Jonah Convent on Styx Late, Late in the Evening Noonday and Night Fault in the Structure Wraiths and Changelings Mingled With Venom The Mudflats of the Dead Nest of Vipers Uncoffin’d Clay The Whispering Knights Lovers, Make Moan The Death-Cap Dancers The Death of a Burrowing Mole Here Lies Gloria Mundy Cold, Lone and Still The Greenstone Griffins The Crozier Pharaohs No Winding-Sheet VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERIES With the sign of a human skull upon its back and a melancholy shriek emitted when disturbed, the Death’s Head Hawkmoth has for centuries been a bringer of doom and an omen of death – which is why we chose it as the emblem for our Vintage Murder Mysteries. Some say that its appearance in King George III’s bedchamber pushed him into madness. Others believe that should its wings extinguish a candle by night, those nearby will be cursed with blindness. Indeed its very name, Acherontia atropos, delves into the most sinister realms of Greek mythology: Acheron, the River of Pain in the underworld, and Atropos, the Fate charged with severing the thread of life. The perfect companion, then, for our Vintage Murder Mysteries sleuths, for whom sinister occurrences are never far away and murder is always just around the corner … MORE VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERIES EDMUND CRISPIN Buried for Pleasure The Case of the Gilded Fly Holy Disorders Love Lies Bleeding The Moving Toyshop Swan Song A. A. MILNE The Red House Mystery GLADYS MITCHELL Speedy Death The Mystery of a Butcher’s Shop The Longer Bodies The Saltmarsh Murders Death and the Opera The Devil at Saxon Wall Dead Men’s Morris Come Away, Death St Peter’s Finger Brazen Tongue Hangman’s Curfew When Last I Died Laurels Are Poison Here Comes a Chopper Death and the Maiden Tom Brown’s Body Groaning Spinney The Devil’s Elbow The Echoing Strangers Watson’s Choice The Twenty-Third Man Spotted Hemlock My Bones Will Keep Three Quick and Five Dead Dance to Your Daddy A Hearse on May-Day Late, Late in the Evening Fault in the Structure Nest of Vipers MARGERY ALLINGHAM Mystery Mile Police at the Funeral Sweet Danger Flowers for the Judge The Case of the Late Pig The Fashion in Shrouds Traitor’s Purse Coroner’s Pidgin More Work for the Undertaker The Tiger in the Smoke The Beckoning Lady Hide My Eyes The China Governess The Mind Readers Cargo of Eagles E. F. BENSON The Blotting Book The Luck of the Vails NICHOLAS BLAKE A Question of Proof Thou Shell of Death There’s Trouble Brewing The Beast Must Die The Smiler With the Knife Malice in Wonderland The Case of the Abominable Snowman Minute for Murder Head of a Traveller The Dreadful Hollow The Whisper in the Gloom End of Chapter The Widow’s Cruise The Worm of Death The Sad Variety The Morning After Death CHAPTER ONE No Haste to the Wedding ‘ “Ride softly up,” said the best young man; “I think our bride come slowly on.” “Ride up, ride up,” said the second man; “I think our bride look pale and wan.” ’ Anon. – The Cruel Brother When she was questioned about it afterwards, Fenella Lestrange was forced to admit that there was no very good reason why she should have chosen to break her journey at the village of Seven Wells. It was off her
