An Expert in Murder: A Josephine Tey Mystery (Josephine Tey Mysteries Book 1)

The story of Josephine Tey, a novelist and her involvement in a theatre company presenting one of her stories. The book is full of interesting characters and discusses their roles in the play and in the book. It switches between the play and the novel so you need to be aware of the differences.

The murderer was dead before the novel began, or at least mostly dead. And if I told you any more than that I’d be giving too much away, so I’ll stop there. Not very often does one come across a historical British detective fiction novelist of the calibre of Agatha Christie. Georgette Heyer’s delightful novels are fun and lively, Rhys Bowen’s are similarly cheerful and romantic, and Elizabeth Peters’ are witty and exotic. But every once in a great while, an author comes along who stuns you with his or her depth of insight, and dazzles with the beauty of their prose. Nicola Upson is just such a writer. If you love theatre, 1930s Britain, tight plots and engaging characters, then you’ll most likely love Upson’s first novel about Josephine Tey, a playwright-accidentally-turned-detective. Heyer, Bowen, and Peters’ novels all contain fun characters and mostly solid plots, and each of these literati dames are mistresses of their craft. Peters’ books, it is said, are kept under lock and key at the New York Public library because, at least back in the day, they were frequently stolen because they were so popular. But the one thing that these three charming novelists rarely if ever do is something which Upson does—shockingly—even better than the Queen herself, Agatha Christie. Upson makes you care. She seamlessly manages to combine those two almost impossibly-divorced subjects, plot and character, in an extraordinary way that actually works.Detective fiction bellyflops with a splash when it focuses too much on character as opposed to plot, because a mystery novel is all about plot almost by definition. Heyer, Bowen, and Peters manage to create really fun, mostly-believable characters within this context, which is quite a feat in itself, but the characters are not known for their depth. Carol O’Connell stands out for her tragically memorable Mallory, who hides from readers in the pages of novels outstanding for their masterful style and plots, but the Mallory novels are neither historical nor British. (To be clear, though, Mallory doesn’t die in the end—probably—that’s not why she’s tragic—so you should totally read that series.) Oliver Poztch creates extremely believable medieval worlds in his German detective stories, but his novels move too slowly due to their imbalanced focus on characters and setting. Upson, however, outdoes them all, and creates a work of fiction that lives. Possessed of that rare ability to show, rather than tell, that so many authors, even fairly good ones, fail to do really well, Upson weaves a powerful tale of mystery, violence, theatre, tragedy, and love. The reader is caught by surprise, finding herself actually caring about multiple characters and relationships, as she is swept along under the spell of Upson’s creativity. One cautionary note, for the gentlest of readers: Upson is slightly more vulgar than Christie. Very strong language appears in the book, but it appears at infrequent intervals. Homosexuality is depicted in a way that Christie never would have touched, but at least in this first novel, that lifestyle is not only more or less essential to the plot, but also delicately and minimally treated. Upson is at least 18k gold amidst the gold-plated offerings of her rivals. Highly recommended.

This is an interesting start to a new historical mystery series. The protagonist is a fictionalized version of the mystery writer, Josephine Tey and the book is set in the early 1930's. She is traveling from her home in Scotland to London to see the closing week performance of a play she wrote. On the train, she meets a young woman who is a big fan of the play and is heading there to see a performance with her boyfriend, who works at the theater. Josephine is shocked to hear that the young woman was murdered on the train after she returns to get a forgotten bag. The murder is investigated by Archie Penrose, a friend of Josephine's and a member of Scotland Yard. The train carriage scene has been set up with some memorabilia from Josephine's play, suggesting a connection. As they dig into her background, we find out that there may be a further connection to the play and to the past history of several of those surrounding the play, harkening back to an incident during the Great War. When further mayhem occurs, Josephine realizes that she may be a target as well. This was a good start to the series and is quite atmospheric. It has certainly piqued my interest in the rest of the series, and also to read some of Tey's own work.

This novel blends an interesting imagining of the personal life of mystery writer and playwright Josephine Tey (actually a pseudonym for Elizabeth MacKintosh, but she is Josephine in the book) with an authentic-seeming look into the London theater world of the 1930s. The writing is top drawer, characterization is excellent and the pacing and twists in the action keep the reader engaged. The book falls down somewhat when we arrive at the mystery's solution, though. The motive for the crimes turns out to be worthy of an Elizabethan revenge tragedy. That and the convoluted nature of the crimes' commission along with a thickening of the plot through coincidence strains credibility in a narrative that is otherwise grounded in reality. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the writing and characterizations enough to recommend this book to readers who like classic whodunits and historical mysteries. I look forward to reading further in this series.

This the first in Ms Upson's series featuring Josephine Tey, famous in the mid-twentieth century for her meticulously plotted and cunningly concluded mysteries. In an Expert in Murder, Josephine Tey, on a train from Scotland to London for the final performance of her very popular play, Richard of Bordeaux, shares a compartment with an exceptional young woman also on her way to view the same play with her new boy friend the assistant director. When she is found murdered at the end of the journey Josephine and her friend Inspector Archie Penrose join forces to find the f killer among their many theatrical friends and associates. Few writers could match Ms Tey's ability to surprise, but Ms Upson comes very close. This series is recommended for the discriminating reader as are those of Josephine Tey herself, especially Daughter of Time, an international best seller when it was first published and even more relevant today.

Nicola Upson’s debut novel focuses on the real life character Josephine Tey, whose birth name was Elizabeth Mackinstosh and who wrote novels under the pseudonym Josephine Tey and plays under the name of Gordon Daviot. In 'An Expert in Murder’ we meet Josephine Tey in 1934 when she is travelling to London by train from her home in Inverness to watch the last run of her play ‘Richard of Bordeaux’ - a play that has received a huge amount of praise and is so successful that there have even been dolls of the main characters manufactured for fans to purchase. On the train to London Josephine meets an ardent young fan named Elspeth, who is also on her way to watch one of the last West End performances of Josephine's play and who is very excited to meet her idol. However, Elspeth never makes it to see the play; after Miss Tey leaves the train, Elspeth is murdered in the train carriage they shared and is found with one of the dolls from ‘Richard of Bordeaux’ left by the murderer in the carriage with her. When Scotland Yard is called in to investigate, Josephine meets up again with Detective Inspector Archie Penrose, who was a close friend of Josephine’s fiance who was killed during WW1, and Archie, we soon learn, is in love with Miss Tey. Aided by Josephine, Archie gradually pieces together information about Elspeth's past which he hopes will lead to him discovering why she was killed, but when another person is found murdered at the theatre where Josephine’s play is being staged, Archie begins to suspect that the murders could somehow be connected to Josephine and her play. But are they?With its evocative 1930s theatre-land setting, this murder mystery story was one that kept me involved from beginning to end. It is true that there were parts to it that I was a little unsure about - for example: would people in the 1930s have used expressions such as: “…give him a b*ll*cking”? And was the ‘f’ word bandied about so freely in the 1930s - especially in mixed company? Also I understand that in the 1930s people came of age when they reached twenty-one and not eighteen as mentioned in the story - something I would have thought should have been noticed by the author’s editor. However, all of that said, I found much to enjoy here and as a fan of ‘Golden Age Crime’ novels (although I've actually reviewed very few of them here on Amazon), it’s good to have found a new source of murder mystery stories - this particular novel is the first of several books featuring Miss Tey and as I have been told by a friend who has read all of the Josephine Tey novels that the series improves with each book, I’m very much looking forward to reading more from Ms Upson.4 Stars.

I really wanted to like this, but I didn’t. I thought it was very overwritten, and my God all the characters were so flipping sensitive and intelligent that they simply had to explain things in great and agonising detail. I didn’t get any sense of the period at all, and I found it confusing that on one hand a lesbian relationship is accepted without a single dissenting voice (remembering that this is 1934) and yet in another part of the plot, a homosexual liaison gets someone rather feebly blackmailed. The story relied too heavily on extraordinary coincidences, I simply couldn’t take to the humourless detective, the end was, as others have said, simply ridiculous and there was no sense of the social class differences that surely existed between the various protagonists. I won’t be reading any more in the series which is a shame because it was a good idea, poorly executed.

I really love Upson's writing but I didn't like this. Her descriptions are wonderful with a great sense of place and her characters well-drawn but there were just too many players in this story. I tend to struggle if an author introduces too many characters too quickly, especially if their names begin with the same letter. At one point I thought I was going to have to go back to the beginning and make a list as I'd become so confused. On one page there were seven people mentioned in one third of the page. Whilst the plot was clever it seemed somewhat overdone, maybe in order to keep us guessing but it just didn't do it for me. I felt as though I was in overload in all aspects of this novel. A shame because, as previously said, her descriptive writing is so good.

I began reading because I am an admirer of Josephine Tey, the real person. The characters seemed strong and well drawn. By the time I finished I was rather disillusioned. The book was far too long for its content. Too many explanations. The denouement dragged on monotonously, and just when I thought it was ending at last there was another tweak of the tail and there were more loose ends tied up.There were grammatical errors as well. In the 1930s no one would have used the word like instead of as if. Swearing was probably kept for male company. No man with manners swore in front of a lady. Bright young things may, for all I know, have used risque language but I’m sure they were never as coarse and vulgar as Ronnie and Lettice even if they were Bohemians.I will read further books in the series and hope the rougher edges will be smoothed.

Very disappointing. A friend reminded me of Josephine Tey's wonderful novels and mentioned this mystery series using Tey as the central character. A more imaginative author than Upson might have been able to pull it off, but there isn't a single well written character in the book. On top of cardboard characters, there are too many characters who seem to have no purpose in the plot line which loses coherence by the middle of chapter 2. I did forge on to the end which was a ridiculous mixture of murder, madness, guilt, and histrionics. I won't be continuing with the series especially after reading similar comments from others who have read later books in the series. Upson does not seem to up her game.