The Dancing Druids by Gladys Mitchell

The Dancing Druids by Gladys Mitchell published 1948 A most enjoyable farrago (words that can be used about most Mitchell books) but strangely unmemorable: a couple of weeks after reading it I have not much to say about the plot. The Dancing Druids are standing stones - much like the Mocking Widow in a recently featured John Dickson Carr book. I think that is a slap-up, truly compelling title. And then comes a good setup: some young men are doing a cross-country hare and hounds (ie the group chasing one of their number) and one of them gets diverted (a mistake or deliberately misled?) and encounters a strange group of people, obviously up to no good, and a lot of talk of moving a very ill man to hospital. Two of the young men are mulling over what this could all mean, and they end up consulting Dame Beatrice Bradley, though they have their doubts: ‘She still believes in Freud – 1856 and all that. Still, I believe she’s 90’. Mrs B of course investigates with vigour, and with the help…