Nicola Upson

For fans of classic detective stories, including the mysteries of Agatha Christie, comes this brilliant first novel set in the exotic world of British theater in the 1930s.

An Expert in Murder

March 1934. Revered mystery writer Josephine Tey is traveling from Scotland to London for the final week of her play Richard of Bordeaux, the surprise hit of the season, with pacifist themes that resonate in a world still haunted by war. But joy turns to horror when her arrival coincides with the murder of a young woman she had befriended on the train ride—and Tey is plunged into a mystery as puzzling as any in her own works. Detective Inspector Archie Penrose is convinced that the killing is connected to the play, and that Tey herself is in danger of becoming a victim of her own success. In the aftermath of a second murder, the writer and the policeman must join together to stop a ruthless killer who will apparently stop at nothing.

A Josephine Tey Mystery

Connor 

Really I want to give this 3.5; I thoroughly enjoyed Upson's writing and characters, but found her decision to use something like nine or ten narrative voices slightly distracting and overwhelming. That choice made the novel feel rather crowded, as the events unfold over what I'm told is three or four days but what, when reading, feels like an age due to jumping around and back and sideways. The mystery was creative and compelling, however, and I look forward to reading the next in the series.

An Expert in Murder

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