spotted hemlock

the man who grew tomatoes

say it with flowers

the nodding canaries

my bones will keep

adders on the heath

death of a delft blue

pageant of 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

a javelin for jonah

winking at the brim

convent on styx

late, late in the evening

noonday and night

fault in the structure

wraiths and changelings

mingled with venom

nest of vipers

mudflats of the dead

uncoffin’d clay

the whispering knights

the death-cap dancers

First published in Great Britain by Michael Joseph Ltd

44 Bedford Square, London WC1 — 1981

© 1981 by Gladys Mitchell

All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the Copyright owner

ISBN 0 7181 2031 0

Printed and bound by Redwood Burn Ltd, Trowbridge and Esher.

This book is an unashamed, unrepentant, middle-of-the-road whodunnit which keeps the rules of that classic literary form by providing all the clues to the murderer for those readers who can be bothered to pick them up, as Dame Beatrice Lestrange Bradley is compelled to do in order to solve the mystery.

One or two red herrings are thrown in to add piquancy to the narrative but the author, as in honour bound, eschews mysterious Chinamen, secret passages and poisons unknown to science. However, she has broken her oath by stealing part of the plot from another writer, for the story revolves around an amateur dramatic society’s performances of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Might’s Dream in which Pyramus kills himself.

Some readers may think they recognise the setting of the book as the port of Poole in Dorset. In that case, the grounds in which the open-air production is staged must be in or near the famous gardens of Compton Acres. Castle Island, however, is entirely fictitious, and so are any references to the tides in Poole Harbour.

To JULIAN with love

Time was, when we, beside a Highland burn,

Gathered bell heather and the fronds of fern,

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