Gladys Mitchell
Noonday and Night
Late, Late in the Evening

Noonday and Night
The case of the missing coach drivers...
Called upon to probe the mysterious disappearance of two touring motor-coach drivers, Dame Beatrice Lestrange Bradley uncovers a racket which involves stolen antiques, smuggling and murder.
Later, a third driver is missing, but reappears to tell a tale which Dame Beatrice suspects is only partly true. The story moves from a stately home in Derbyshire to a Cathedral town in West Wales and finishes in a loch-side hamlet not far from Fort William. One slender clue leads to another until the drama is played out and the murderer named.
Coach-party addicts may be able to recognise the various locations and those who contemplate their first coach tour may be reassured by the fact that, according to the story, only the driver-couriers get murdered, never the passangers.
"Gladys Mitchell can always be relied upon for a packed and meaty novel and an intelligent one at that." The Guardian
"Mrs Lestrange Bradley.. is by far the best and most vital English female detective." The Observer

Late, Late in the Evening
In her fiftieth novel, Gladys Mitchell returns to the days befor Mrs Bradley became Dame Beatrice.
In the small Oxfordshire village where Ken and Meg Clifton spend their school holidays, the Fair is the most exciting thing that ever happens - that is, until a double murder is suddenly committed.
Despite the similarity of method, there seems little motive for either death, and no logical connection between the two. The general opinion is that the village contains a homicidal maniac.
Mrs Bradley, called in by her friend Mrs Kempson, thinks otherwise; but even with Meg and Ken's eager assistance, she can make little progress until her enquiries uncover the reckless and impudent impersonation of a man who died five years previously...
"The marvel is that although Miss Mitchell has been so prolific, she has also been so good." Edmund Crispin
"Miss Mitchell began her career in the golden age of detective fiction and has manintained her highly individual talent through all the genre's vicissitudes." P.D.James, Times Literary Supplement
"I suppose another fifty is too much to ask?" H.R.F.Keating The Times