Say It With Flowers (1960)

Blurb:

Two leading characters in Gladys Mitchell’s new detective novel are Phlox and Marigold Carmichael, a pair of dilettante Bohemians who wish to find Romano-British treasure trove.  While digging in Hampshire they unearth a skeleton which they show as a Romano-British exhibit.  However, Dame Beatrice Lestrange Bradley is so doubtful of its origin that she has tests made and discovers the bones to be those of a person killed within the present decade.  And so Miss Mitchell’s famous woman detective takes on a new and exciting case.

Blurb provided by Jason Hall.

My review:

A rather dull story in which Dame Beatrice ineffectually investigates the finding of a Roman or Saxon skeleton that turns out to be a modern one, the discovery of more corpses near Hadrian's Wall and on top of the Manor House Tower, and the drowning of a boatman.  Unfortunately, despite characteristic wit, the simultaneous police and amateur investigations are equally boring, and it is very difficult to care why or how the egregious Bohemian should have committed the murders.  The plot is full of holes: Having buried the skeleton, why should Phlox dig it up again?  If the body near Hadrian's Wall is not Hilary Beads's, whose is it, and what relevance does it have to the plot?  If it is, then how on earth does it come to be discovered decomposing on top of the house?  Very sloppy work, Miss Mitchell.

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