I have just finished reading Nicola Upson's ninth book in her series using the real-life detective writer Josephine Tey as one of the main characters.
Faber & Faber first edition - 2020Quoting from the dust jacket's blurb: December 1938. Storm Clouds hover once again over Europe. Writer Josephine Tey and Detective Chief Inspector Archie Penrose gather with friends for a Cornish Christmas, but two strange and brutal deaths on St Michael's Mount - and the unexpected arrival of a world-famous film star, in need of sanctuary - interrupt the festivities. Cut off by the sea and a relentless blizzard, can Josephine and Archie prevent the murderer from striking again?
Once again, Nicola Upson proves that she can 'spin a yarn'. There's no great or deep insights into the detection side of things, but she builds up a believable cast of characters on the way. Like nearly all her previous stories, Upson brings in real-life people and often uses real-life events (if usually altered to fit her tale) to good effect. Here, Marlene Dietrich joins the others at a planned Christmas retreat which goes horribly wrong. The two murders, and murderers, are quite different. The first, a spur of the moment, rush-of-blood to the head between two old friends who have long lived on the Mount; the other a killing based on events many years ago, and set out in the 'prologue' chapter. There are one or two little plot twists which greatly added to the story, if not the suspense.
2008
I have been collecting Nicola Upson's Tey series ever since the first volume An Expert in Murder came out in 2008. Set in London's theatreland in 1934, the link with two murders appears to be Josephine Tey's play Richard of Bordeaux. I wrote to Upson in March 2009, to congratulate her on her debut, sending her some of Tey's signatures from some of her first editions I had collected. She wrote back a thank-you letter, saying she was currently on the last chapter of Book 3 and was about to launch No. 2. Sure enough, I bought them as they appeared - Angel with Two Faces (2009) and Two For Sorrow (2010). A fourth one - Fear in the Sunlight (2012) soon followed.
I have enjoyed all the books, whether set in Cornwall and its Minack Theatre; researching the Finchley baby farmers with the subsequent hanging of two women in 1903; or joining Alfred Hitchcock and his wife Alma Reville in the North Wales village of Portmeirion; the character studies, settings and murder plots are well done.
Two more books followed - The Death of Lucy Kyte in 2013 and London Rain in 2015. The first atmospherically weaving a story around the Suffolk setting for the infamous Red Barn murder of Maria Marten (who can forget hammy Tod Slaughter in the 1936 melodrama!); the second set during the Coronation celebrations in 1937 London , involving nasty goings-on at the BBC.
2013 2015
Strangely, Faber brought out the last four books in large paperback format. I hate changes in binding formats - it just does not look right on my bookshelves! The good news is that for the next three books, including The Dead of Winter, the publisher reverted to dust wrappered hardbacks.
Nine Lessons is set in 1930s Cambridge in the period leading up to Christmas. A serial rapist stalks the streets. The dedication pays tribute to the group of women who survived the real Cambridge rapist and Upson weaves her tale around a creepy and bleak series of events. Sorry for the Dead again uses events of the past - here, it is 1915 - to construct a compelling story on the 1930s Sussex Downs.
It is difficult, after a period of up to eleven years, particularly since I have read so many other novels, to recall in any great depth the storylines of Upson's nine books. None have disappointed me, some I have finished thinking "I really did enjoy that". Nine Lessons I remember being quite creepy; Two for Sorrow being rather sad; Fear in the Sunlight being a fascinating account of the Hitchcocks coming up against Tey, whose novel they were turning into quite a different film. The use of flashback events and real people in her stories works for Upson. I look forward to more. Tey didn't die (albeit far too young at 55) until 1952 and Upson has only reached Christmas 1938!
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