An Expert in Murder

"An Expert In Murder" is a well-written, rigorously-plotted, character-driven novel with a perfect period feel that I loved most for its empathy and compassion.

I'm a fan of Josephine Tay. I think "Brat Farrar" is exceptional. So, when I saw that someone had written a series of mysteries with Josephine Tay as the central character, I was intrigued and had to try one.

I think combining fictional characters and real characters in an historical setting is very challenging. It's in danger of becoming either a dumping ground for research or an appropriation of the real people involved or the interpolation of inappropriately modern perspectives. When one is writing about a writer, there's also the challenge of getting the tone of the writing show more right.

Nicola Upson meets all of these challenges with great skill and manages to produce a compelling novel with strong characters.

"An Expert In Murder" is set in London in the 1930s and revolves around deaths associated with a production of Josephine Tays most successful play.

The first thing that struck me about the book was that that tone of the writing was a good fit for the period, without becoming a pastiche. The period was presented in a way that felt authentic and unromanticised. I was given an insight into the emotional state of a generation haunted by The Great War and already standing in the shadow of the next one. It spoke to the unbridgeable divide between those who'd experienced the trenches and the tunnels those who hadn't. It conveyed the sense of loss on such a scale that no-one was left untouched.

Theatrical life was drawn with energy and realism and what seems to be a deep knowledge of what the London stage was like in the thirties when John Guilgood was the lead in Tey's play (he doesn't appear by name in the book).

The plot is complicated and surprising and has evil at its heart. There is a suspect-rich environment with many people keeping secrets. The characters are strong and their relationships and moods shift in realistic ways.

By the end of the novel, the strongest impression I was left with was not a clever mystery puzzle but of a deeply compassionate story about the damage done to men by the war, the vulnerability of women and how the theatre could help them achieve independence and the small ways in which we all fail ourselves and each other.

I enjoyed this novel and I'll definitely be reading more in the series.

If you think you'd enjoy it too, I strongly recommend that audiobook version. Sandra Duncan's narration is outstanding. show less

"In both crimes there was a terrifying lack of humanity, a mockery of the dead which chilled him (Penrose) even more than the loss of life itself."

There is an old-style elegance to this richly atmospheric mystery set in the world of the theatre during the early 1930s. Mystery writer and playwright Josephine Tey is the central character in this story of a shocking murder aboard a train. The investigation slowly reveals a tangled web of events harking back to the Great War, the complexity of which is only illuminated at the end, revealing just about everyone involved to be a victim in the tragedy.

Nicola Upson has written a beautiful and involving mystery which transcends the genre. By framing her novel around Josephine Tey, it allows her show more to paint a vivid picture of the period, and the emotions still lingering after the Great War. You really feel like you are in Tey's era while reading this. While Tey could have become just a plot device in another author's hand, she becomes a real person, as do many of the other characters, including her romantic interest, Inspector Archie Penrose.

Tey's most successful play, which made Sir John Gieguld a star, is where danger lies. But it is on a train from Scotland to London where Josephine comes into contact with a special young woman full of life and simple charm. On her way to meet her boyfriend, Elspeth will meet evil, and not live long enough to know the reason why. Upson paints a sweet and romantic picture of the times themselves, and Elspeth, giving her murder a poignancy.

As Archie investigates and Josephine mingles, every character is fleshed out in a way we used to see during Tey's era of great mystery writers. Josephine takes a back seat during the middle portion of the book as we are treated to lovers and sickness, old wounds and bitterness. This has the reader wondering how any of this touched the far removed, adopted girl who closed her eyes for the last time aboard a train to London. Then a second particularly vile murder much closer to Josephine's play takes place.

Archie and Josephine begin to untangle the ties which led to the murders from different angles, in the last portion of the mystery. There is a rush to reach the end for the reader, by now aching to discover the entire twisting series of events that began in a tunnel during the war, and ended tragically on a train bound for London. There is a tenderness to the conclusion, showing the anguish and aftermath of the Great War and the many lives it took, some in ways unexpected and far reaching. Archie and Josephine's relationship does not go untouched by events either, giving the reader a thirst for more.

While it isn’t perfect, and at times leans toward literary fiction a bit too much to create genuine excitement, it is a fine and atmospheric mystery with much to offer those who love a period mystery, and/or Josephine Tey. show less

I bought this book as a Christmas present for someone who likes Josephine Tey. I'm not sure if it's a good present - real person fan fic can feel a bit uncomfortable to many people, and it's not very clear how similar the Josephine in these novels is to the real author, or if Tey would have approved of this grisly retelling of her life with added murders. I never quite got into it - I found it dragged a little in places, the large cast of characters were tricky to keep track of, and even the big revelations at the end were surprisingly ungripping - but some of that might be that I was trying to read it around Christmas when I was distracted and stressed. It is strangely in conversation with Black is the Colour of My True Love's Heart, show more once again the murders are due to a woman having a baby she should not have had, and that same woman trying to re-establish a relationship with the child years later. show less

Nicola Upson has written a very compelling historical mystery that doesn't ask the reader to believe that a playwright is secretly a top-notch sleuth. There is an actual detective in this story -- Detective Inspector Archie Penrose of Scotland Yard. Archie is, in fact, the inspiration for Josephine's fictional detective Alan Grant and is a very competent police officer. Tey's role in the story is simply as a bystander who is unknowingly a cog in the murderous plans of someone who seems to be obsessed with her hit play, Richard of Bordeaux.

Many readers will see some similarities between the Josephine Tey character and Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs but, while both are strong, single women who have been damaged by a wartime loss, they show more are also different in many ways. I think the true test of this series will be in the next book, Angel With Two Faces. While Maisie is a private investigator, which lends itself well to a mystery series, Tey is simply an author, although one of detective stories. So, as long as the situations she finds herself in don't become forced or far-fetched, I'll be interested in following Tey and seeing how the character matures.

http://webereading.com/2012/10/rip-vii-read-4-expert-in-murder.html show less

Very well-written, very evocative of England (and particularly London) between the wars, interesting info about Josephine Tey (whose books I enjoy). However, I'm not reading any more of these. This was way too grim and depressing for me. Every single character (except possibly Elspeth) had dark secrets, most of which were tangled with those of the other characters. A lot of apparent coincidences turned out to be engineered; those doing the engineering were (both, or all) rather obsessed with a single event years in the past and its consequences. "Josephine" is rather a side character, despite being there at at least one of the climaxes; she's mostly caught up in the engineering. She was a clearing-house for other characters to deposit show more information so that it got passed on, and did very little herself. And, of course, none of these events happened to the actual author (so most of the facts divulged about her are fictional, or marginally true). If you like dark mysteries, you might enjoy this very much; if you love Tey, it's eh. I prefer cozies and like Tey, so not for me. It did make me want to read Richard of Bordeaux, though. show less

Author Nicola Upson has not recreated the novels of Josephine Tey (one of the pseudonyms used by Scottish novelist and playwright Elizabeth MacKintosh). But An Expert in Murder remains a pretty serviceable historical mystery, even if both Tey and love-interest, Detective Inspector Archie Penrose, are a bit twee.

Despite that, the mystery at the heart of the novel is a gripping one. A girl traveling with Josephine Tey is murdered soon after the train arrives. Was she the intended victim? Or was Tey? The action takes place in the last few weeks of the year-long run of Tey’s biggest West End hit, Richard of Bordeaux, and readers will enjoy a thinly veiled version of Sir John Gielgud in his brash youth. I couldn’t put the book down show more until I found out the ending.

I’ve already begun the sequel. Yes, the novel was that good. Here’s to hoping that Upson improves on the characterization of Tey and Penrose in Angel with Two Faces. show less

First Line: Had she been superstitious, Josephine Tey might have realised the odds were against her when she found that her train, the early-morning express from the Highlands, was running an hour and a half late.

No one could be more surprised than Josephine Tey that her play, Richard of Bordeaux, is the hit of the 1934 theatre season in London. She boards the train from Inverness to London to attend the play's final week and strikes up a conversation with a very personable young girl in the same compartment. To Josephine's shock, the young girl is murdered shortly after the train reaches London.

A friend of Josephine's, Detective Inspector Archie Penrose, is convinced that the murder is connected to the play, and that Josephine herself show more is in danger. When a second murder occurs, the policeman and the playwright find themselves working together to catch a killer.

Author Nicola Upson has done a marvelous job of blending fact and fiction in the character of Josephine Tey. (I don't read many "classic" or "golden age" mysteries, but even I know about Josephine Tey and her wonderful books. She is a very under-appreciated writer.) Upson's historical detail isn't at all overwhelming, and sets just the right tone in transporting a reader into the 1930s.

I had managed to identify the killer and a cohort, but I did not deduce the Why of it all because I was enjoying the characters, the setting, and the twists and turns of the plot so much. I look forward to reading the other books in the series, and would recommend them to anyone who has enjoyed reading Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs series, the Bess Crawford series written by Charles Todd, or the books of Suzanne Arruda. show less