Nicola Upson

Angel with two faces

Pierke Bosschieter

AfterJacqueline Winspear' Maisie Dobbs series and Charles Todd's Bess Crawford series (I know there's a new one coming out next week), I was afraid I wouldn't find a heroine in the same mold or a series with the same kind of atmosphere, but I think I found a new favourite. I put off starting on Nicola Upson Jospehine Tey series although I knew the Scottish connection would suite me very well. I was afraid my admiration for Jospehine Tey and her books (my favourites are The Daughter of Time and The Franchise Affair of which I own much thumbed 50’s Penguin pockets) would somehow be tainted by reading about her fictional counterpart. As the first book has as a backdrop the very successful play Richard of Bordeaux, with which I have no bond at all and the second book only mentions the start of the writing process of a new undistinguishable mystery novel, there’s little here that could mar my idea of the real writer and her stories. Josephine is depicted as intensely private, as she was in real life, but that doesn’t detain her from putting her nose into other people business, to help her friend Archie Penrose solve several murders. In the first book An Expert in Murder I found that Tey didn’t emerge very clearly, but in the second book her character is more defined. In both books the plots are well constructed, although the second one was a wee bit far-fetched. Nevertheless, it kept me on the edge of my chair till the end. I am looking forward to reading the rest of the series and see Tey grow into a more distinct figure.

Connor 

Although I enjoyed the style of this book more than the last--the multiple narrators were limited to a handful instead of two, and they fit together much better--I should probably say that content wise, other than Archie and Josephine's friendship, I really was not a fan of the murder case.

Angel with two faces

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