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A review by tombomp
A Speedy Death by Gladys Mitchell
1.0
What a stunningly mean spirited book- full of misogyny, ableism and a sense that the rich are always right. Attached to a pretty poor mystery with fully unlikable characters and a very messed up system of ethics with a shockingly grotesque ending. The main detective character is like dark side Miss Marple. It almost plays as a satire of the meaningless, cruel and empty lives of the idle rich. It sort of features a trans man and manages to do basically nothing with it. None of the rich people give a shit about the murder except that it's annoying. Just... ugh.
The rest is spoilers for the entire plot and reveals all the details casually but I'm writing a lot cause I'm mad about it.
Eleanor goes on to attempt 2 more murders that are avoided because Mrs Bradley moves the women she knows will be victims to her own room. There's never really any suspects presented for anyone other than Eleanor so the suspense is weak.
At the end Eleanor is murdered and there's a big trial where Mrs Bradley is arrested and you sort of think well she has to be innocent cause she's our hero right? Haha nah she did it, is very proud of it, all the people at the house knew she did it and support her, her lawyer son who defended her knows she did it too... it feels like such a bizarre ending and really uncomfortable. Especially when you realise they'd caught Eleanor red handed attempting murder, had witnesses to her attempting another and have the proof from the diary entry (which magically appears near the end) that she did the first murder so they could easily have got her found guilty of the first murder anyway. There was no need to murder her. At the very least I'm pretty sure they had enough evidence to get her confined to an asylum. But nope. The reasoning for why she did it is that she'd try murdering more people if she felt they were getting in between her and her love obsession but again they could just... get her arrested. It feels gross because of the positive glee everyone takes in it, including Mrs Bradley.
Mrs Bradley is constantly described as ugly, over and over, and even unpleasant to be around (she certainly doesn't seem to care much for other people's feelings or show any sorrow over deaths) but then in the end everyone is cheering for her because she... murdered Eleanor. It's bizarre - that she's presented as bad at least partly because of her looks but her redemption is murdering someone.
All the characters except Dorothy, Carstairs and Inspector Boring are pretty horrible honestly. Bertie is a lecherous man who goes too far with Dorothy after she says no and refusing to accept she's engaged to another man. His lechery is also what provokes Eleanor's attempted murder on Dorothy. He also attempts to murder Eleanor (and gets pretty damn close, apparently - she only revives from being drowned after 30 minutes of not breathing, which is absurd) which isn't something anyone cares about at all. It's just treated as totally fine.
Dorothy's fiancee G something Bing is a horrible man too. He shows no care for Dorothy's feelings and multiple times belittles her and treats her like dirt. He hates his sister even before she's hurt anyone for no obvious reason outside that she's tedious. He doesn't give a shit about Mountjoy dying.
Alistair Bing, the patriarch, also sucks. He's treated Eleanor like an all purpose servant/household manager/academic "assistant" and prevented her getting a real life (which is presented as why she ends up "snapping", not that she's shown any sympathy). He has an awful temper and hates Mountjoy for correcting his amateur archaeology nonsense and again shows basically no concern when he dies. He has an affair with a housemaid and in the end he flies off to Tibet before the trial of the murderer of his daughter, both a red herring and an example of his complete uncaring towards her and seemingly everyone who's not him.
Carstairs is probably the 2nd most sympathetic character, although him avoiding any suspicious because he knows the Chief Constable is another sign of the weird and messed up class politics and ethics in this book. Him applauding Eleanor's murder kind of ruins it too.
The rest is spoilers for the entire plot and reveals all the details casually but I'm writing a lot cause I'm mad about it.
Spoiler
This is spoiled in pretty much every blurb but just to be safe: Mountjoy turns out to be a trans man when they find him dead in the bath. There is pretty much nothing done with this - nobody shows any interest in his life at all and early suggestions his life will be investigated just don't happen. It's emphasised over and over that none of the family seem to care at all about his death and the only one who does is the outsider Carstairs. Turns out that's not a clue, they're all just arseholes. The murder is investigated and there's some attempt at suspense but then the attention abruptly shifts to an attempted murder and when they reveal they have proof who did Mountjoy's murder at the end it's kind of an anti-climax. There's no definitive evidence except what appears to be self admission in a diary which is revealed at the end so you can't work it out - although it's hardly surprising because there's only 2 people with even a vague motive and the 1 who did it is constantly portrayed as suspicious so. The only characterisation we get outside of him being an explorer is that he's timid and a bad house guest because he doesn't "golf or motor or walk or ride or swim or tennis or anything" (maybe they could have talked about his exploration stuff? no?) Apparently the only person he gets on with is Eleanor who is... the murderer. And the presumed motive is that she was mad when she found out he had a vagina. Amazing. There's a funny bit where Mrs Bradley suggests that Mountjoy wanted to marry Eleanor either for the money or because of his "sexual perversions". Horrifying!Eleanor goes on to attempt 2 more murders that are avoided because Mrs Bradley moves the women she knows will be victims to her own room. There's never really any suspects presented for anyone other than Eleanor so the suspense is weak.
At the end Eleanor is murdered and there's a big trial where Mrs Bradley is arrested and you sort of think well she has to be innocent cause she's our hero right? Haha nah she did it, is very proud of it, all the people at the house knew she did it and support her, her lawyer son who defended her knows she did it too... it feels like such a bizarre ending and really uncomfortable. Especially when you realise they'd caught Eleanor red handed attempting murder, had witnesses to her attempting another and have the proof from the diary entry (which magically appears near the end) that she did the first murder so they could easily have got her found guilty of the first murder anyway. There was no need to murder her. At the very least I'm pretty sure they had enough evidence to get her confined to an asylum. But nope. The reasoning for why she did it is that she'd try murdering more people if she felt they were getting in between her and her love obsession but again they could just... get her arrested. It feels gross because of the positive glee everyone takes in it, including Mrs Bradley.
Mrs Bradley is constantly described as ugly, over and over, and even unpleasant to be around (she certainly doesn't seem to care much for other people's feelings or show any sorrow over deaths) but then in the end everyone is cheering for her because she... murdered Eleanor. It's bizarre - that she's presented as bad at least partly because of her looks but her redemption is murdering someone.
All the characters except Dorothy, Carstairs and Inspector Boring are pretty horrible honestly. Bertie is a lecherous man who goes too far with Dorothy after she says no and refusing to accept she's engaged to another man. His lechery is also what provokes Eleanor's attempted murder on Dorothy. He also attempts to murder Eleanor (and gets pretty damn close, apparently - she only revives from being drowned after 30 minutes of not breathing, which is absurd) which isn't something anyone cares about at all. It's just treated as totally fine.
Dorothy's fiancee G something Bing is a horrible man too. He shows no care for Dorothy's feelings and multiple times belittles her and treats her like dirt. He hates his sister even before she's hurt anyone for no obvious reason outside that she's tedious. He doesn't give a shit about Mountjoy dying.
Alistair Bing, the patriarch, also sucks. He's treated Eleanor like an all purpose servant/household manager/academic "assistant" and prevented her getting a real life (which is presented as why she ends up "snapping", not that she's shown any sympathy). He has an awful temper and hates Mountjoy for correcting his amateur archaeology nonsense and again shows basically no concern when he dies. He has an affair with a housemaid and in the end he flies off to Tibet before the trial of the murderer of his daughter, both a red herring and an example of his complete uncaring towards her and seemingly everyone who's not him.
Carstairs is probably the 2nd most sympathetic character, although him avoiding any suspicious because he knows the Chief Constable is another sign of the weird and messed up class politics and ethics in this book. Him applauding Eleanor's murder kind of ruins it too.