Death at the Opera — Gladys Mitchell

Mrs. Beatrice Lestrange Bradley is asked by the headmaster of a progressive private school to pose as a faculty member in order to determine if the death of an instructor was murder or suicide. First published in 1934 (it was titled Death in the Wet in the U.S.), Death at the Opera was filmed for Mystery with Diana Rigg as Mrs. Bradley. Readers need not worry, however, since the book and the television program bear little resemblance to each other, other than title, the name of one victim, a scene from The Mikado and, of course, the presence of Mrs. Bradley.