"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 flapI'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.
A Golden-Age whodunnit, mixing Mrs Bradley's keen psychological senses with Sherlockian lore. A windbag landowner holds a Holmes-themed party, at which the Hound of the Baskervilles makes an unscheduled appearance. Later, a body is found dead near where the Hound had been kept. Red herrings fly in abundance, whilst Mrs Bradley manipulates affairs from the sidelines. She and her secretary are well-drawn, with the suspects in the case mostly ciphers, there to stoke along the plot. It isn't a puzzle in the John Dickson Carr sense, but is a fine diversion and has just enough twists in the shortish page-count to maintain the interest.
What do You think about Watson's Choice (1985)?
While the plot and people are interesting, the way the book is written can be a bit confusing at times. Within one chapter the author has a character talk about another and then suddenly they are talking with one another and then you suddenly jump to another location and are doing something else. This jumping made it a bit difficult to know at times where you were and who was where. So reading it took longer than the 180 pages usually did for me, and I had to re-orient myself when I started the book again.What is this mystery about? An older man with money is throwing a "Sherlock Holmes" theme party and has invited various people - some who like him, some who don't. In the end the party comes off some what well... and a bit afterwards he announces that he is to be married to a young woman who pretty much comes off as a "gold-digger." From here I won't go to far into the storyline but will tell you - someone is murdered. I have not read any other books by Mitchell so I cannot address if this book is her usual style or if the detective lady is a re-occurring character.
—Lisa Kucharski
