Angel with Two Faces

Starred review from May 3, 2010
No classic detective fiction aficionado will want to miss Upson’s compelling sequel to 2008’s An Expert in Murder, which introduced mystery author Josephine Tey (1896–1952) as sleuth. In 1935, Tey’s close friend, Scotland Yard Inspector Archie Penrose, has returned on holiday to Cornwall, his childhood home, where he ends up attending the funeral of estate worker Harry Pinching, who drowned in Loe Pool, rumored to take a life every seven years. Most locals believe Pinching’s death was an accident, but Penrose and Tey, who joins the inspector in Cornwall, soon pick up on ominous undercurrents in the community that suggest otherwise. As the pair attempt to uncover the truth, Penrose witnesses another death that’s unquestionably murder. The subtle prose succeeds both at evoking the quiet splendor of the Cornish landscape and in capturing the tragedy and torment that plague many of the characters. The psychological sophistication will resonate with Charles Todd fans.

May 1, 2010
Josephine Tey (An Expert in Murder, 2008) finds murderous inspiration in Cornwall.

What's a writer to do when she's bereft of ideas? Seeking a plot for her second mystery, Tey accepts an invitation to Cornwall, where her good friend, Scotland Yard Inspector Archie Penrose, has returned to attend the funeral of Harry Pinching, who fell from his horse and drowned, to the great distress of his twin sister Morwenna and younger sibling Loveday. Soon after a local curate delivers a rather unfeeling eulogy, he gets his own shot at being eulogized when he's pushed off a cliff during the amateur production Harry was to star in. Suddenly, Miss Tey has many plotlines to choose from, including the curate's unrequited love, the vicar's embezzlement of church money, a gamekeeper's brutalization of his wife, the parentage of the undertaker's missing son and the origins of the fire that killed Harry's parents years ago. Moreover, Archie's mum, like the gamekeeper's wife, may have been abused, and there's something decidedly dicey about the closeness Harry and Morwenna shared. The Tey pen is soon busy assigning crimes, motives and retribution.

You'd have to be daft not to savor Cornwall in the'30s and the fictional sleuthing of real-life mystery writer Josephine Tey.

(COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

June 1, 2010
The death of a daredevil young man brings Scotland Yard inspector Archie Penrose back to his family estate in Cornwall for the funeral. Josephine Tey, the real-life playwright and author introduced as a part-time sleuth in Upsons An Expert in Murder (2008), is visiting friends at a Cornish estate. At this point in Teys career, in the mid-1930s, she has written one novel (The Man in the Queue, under the pseudonym Gordon Daviot) and several successful plays for Londons West End. Quicker than you can say, Curl up with a cozy, Penrose is consulting his longtime friend Tey about the drowning of the estate worker, which he regards as suspicious. The young mans drowning in Loe Pool embodies a local myth that the pond takes a life every seven years. Penrose and Tey set out to place the blame on human, rather than supernatural, causes. Brilliant Cornish scenery and village atmosphere make up for the somewhat pat plotting and unlikely pairing of Penrose and Tey.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)