Gladys Mitchell lived from 1901-1983 and published over seventy novels in her lifetime. Of these, sixty-six of them involved amateur sleuth Dame Beatrice Adela Lestrange Bradley and her Watson Laura Gavin. The first book in the series was published in 1926 as was called Speedy Death (Black Dagger Crime Series) and the last was published after her death in 1984 and was called The Crozier Pharaohs. "Winking At The Brim" was the forty-eighth book in the series and was published in 1974, and this review only involves the large print edition. As Laura goes through the mail in "Winking At The Brim", she finds a letter addressed to Sally Lastrange, Dame Beatrice's young niece who is visiting and who is looking for more permanent living conditions. The letter is an invitation for Sally to attend the birthday party of her schoolmate Phyllis Calshott. Even though she has a low opinion of Sally, she feels that she has to go. This is because Phyllis' father is on the board of a prestigious publisher and Sally has a novel that she would like to see published, and she hopes that Phyllis will put in a good word with her father. Here she and we meet the rest of the novel's characters including Major Tamworth, a pompous blustering fool, and Angela Barton, a cousin to the Calshotts and who is described as a "rat-like little woman with [a] bitter mouth and hostile eyes. . .". She's a vicious, noxious, mean little gossip and snoop who seems to hate and envy everyone, and who delights in sowing internecine conflict with any group that she becomes involved in. The second part of this novel involves Sir Humphrey Calshott's expedition to the Loch na Tannasq, located near the hamlet of Tannasgan. Sir Humphrey is bound and determined to find and record himself a lake monster, so he has various campsites situated around the loch outfitted with the previous members of Phyllis' birthday party members as spotters, and with motion picture cameras to record anything that happens out on the surface of the loch. People being people, soon enough these pampered upper crusters are slacking off, bickering amongst each other, chaffing at the primitive conditions at the loch, and creating their own little sleazy soap opera. And amongst all of this Sally is trying to stay a disinterested third party, and to stay motoring between everybody in an effort to keep the expedition running efficiently for Sir Humphrey. Meanwhile, Angela Barton is working hard at getting herself killed. Something that will happen not early enough in the novel, and almost too late into the book for the reader. Meanwhile, there actually seems to be something out there on the loch as people constantly see mysterious wakes, shapes, and waves. And then the murder happens, and since everybody of interest is separated and situated at their various observation posts, and since the victim has made nothing but enemies, the murder is riff with suspects. Honestly, I didn't even try to solve this mystery, I was happy enough to just go along for the ride, although as the suspects get weeded out of the murder equation it DOES get fairly obvious as to whom the murderer is, and when this murderer gets their just deserts, it is particularly ironic. When I read Women Authors of Detective Series: Twenty-One American and British Authors, 1900-2000 by Moira Davison Reynolds I found a mention of this novel, and being a fan of all things Fortean, the idea of reading a mystery novel involving a lake monster intrigued me. I had to read it, and reading a large print version (helpful to these poor old eyes) cinched it for me. I had to read it, and thankfully I was able to obtain a copy through my library's inter library loan system. Oh, I guess regular readers of English countryside murder mysteries will find this predictable, and even somebody such as me found most of the characterization paper-thin and running more to type than to being fully sketched out. But, y'know, I found it to be fun, especially the loch monster angle, of which the whole question of is left wide open. So, for fantasy fans who like their mysteries, they'll like this one. On another positive note, Mitchell names each chapter, an old-fashioned touch that I miss from most modern novels. Mitchell also starts each chapter with a quote, and Carmilla by J. Sheridan LeFanu in one chapter is quoted substantially by one of the characters. On the negative side, it takes a little long to actually get to the murder, and the investigation which on the police's side is perfunctory at best, and criminally incompetent at worst. Another negative is that Mitchell insists on reproducing the Irish brogue spot on, which makes it almost unreadable to us yanks. But really, these are minor caveats, and since I found that I could read this novel without having read any of the previous novels in the series, a really big plus, I'm going to give this novel four stars.It would make a great little movie.