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An Expert in Murder (Josephine Tey Crime Series) (Hardcover)

by Nicola Upson (Author)
3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
RRP: £12.99
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Product details

  • Hardcover: 292 pages
  • Publisher: Faber and Faber (6 Mar 2008)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0571237703
  • ISBN-13: 978-0571237708
  • Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.4 x 3.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 172,886 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Review
A wonderful period murder mystery which recruits real-life crime writer Josephine to investigate a slaying at the opening of her own West End play. Fans of Tey herself and Agatha Christie will relish this both for its authenticity and its gripping plot.
--Evening Standard

Product Description
"An Expert in Murder" is the first in a new series which features Golden Age crime writer Josephine Tey as its lead character, placing her in the richly peopled world of 1930s theatre which formed the other half of her writing life. It's March 1934, and Tey is travelling from Scotland to London to celebrate what should be the triumphant final week of her celebrated play, Richard of Bordeaux. However, a seemingly senseless murder puts her reputation, and even her life, under threat. Cleverly blending fact and fiction, "An Expert in Murder" is both a tribute to one of the most enduringly popular writers of crime and an atmospheric detective novel in its own right.

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14 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
3.9 out of 5 stars (14 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars great book, 12 Mar 2008
I loved the blend of fact and fiction in this clever crime novel. To see Josephine Tey brought to life in this way was fascinating, and I'm particularly grateful that she wasn't made into some kind of amateur sleuth, but remained a real person caught up in events beyond her control. I found all the characters engaging and sympathetically protrayed, and like all good books in this genre I didn't guess the perpetrator until it was revealed, but when it was all the pieces fell neatly into place.

The book has since been passed on to my girlfriend (who had to take a day off work to finish it she got so caught up by the story) and my parents, where it received a similarly warm reception.

Can't wait for the next one.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Very good, 21 May 2008
By Maria (Greece) - See all my reviews
This is an extremely interesting crime story set in the 1930s; the mystery is absorbing, the writing excellent and the characters interesting and likeable. The inclusion of real-life '30s detective writer Josephine Tey, about whom we convieniently know very little, so the author can take whatever liberties she likes with her life, makes it even more charming and the fact that it is not her that does the detecting helps to keep it realistically plausible. The portrayal of the "lost" generation, which came out of WW1, and how that war affected the mindset of an entire country takes it to a whole other level, as the book becomes worth reading in its own right, regardless of the mystery angle.
My only possible objection is that it doesn't seem to stay true to the period in certain aspects. For example, homosexuality certainly existed and I am willing to believe that in the theatre world it was even more or less excepted, but the idea that a homosexual couple would kiss in public, when homosexuality was an actual crime, is a bit of a stretch. However, anybody but a contemprary writer is bound to get at least a few things wrong, so this does not detract greatly from the novel.
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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars An Expert in Murder by Nicola Upson. Review by ANGELA SINGER, 5 Mar 2008
By B. DONNELLY (London, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   


THIS first novel - and the start of a detective series - by arts writer Nicola Upson is a real page turner. The clues as to who has done the murder are kept close until it all unfolds at the end. Then it all opens up like the flowers on the cover.

Set in the theatreland of the 1930s and written in a lavish 1930s-style, the novel opens with a young girl, Elspeth Simmons being murdered on a train.

Elspeth is modelled on many a real-life theatre devotee of the time. The real Elspeths would have seen their favourite plays several times. This is fiction but set against historical facts. Elspeth is on her way to see Richard of Bordeaux by Josephine Tey, which ran for 463 performances at the New Theatre (now the Noel Coward Theatre) in St Martin's Lane.

To research the book, Upson interviewed people who knew Josephine Tey, including the actor John Gielgud.

Elspeth has a boyfriend who works at the theatre. She is travelling to meet him when she is stabbed in a railway carriage at King's Cross.

We are introduced to Detective Inspector Archie Penrose, the only man who can solve the mystery.

You can tell that Nicola Upson spent the 1990s as marketing manager of the Arts Theatre in Cambridge. She has a droll way of describing how news of the second murder - in a theatre dressing room - was received by the actors.

"Theatre is a self-obsessed medium at the best of times, but this was not the best of times....Gradually it filtered backstage, where certain members of the company experienced the uncomfortable sensation of talking about something other than themselves. They dealt with the novelty in different ways and according to type."

Set between the two world wars, there are also insights into how ordinary people had helped the war effort between 1914 and 1918.

One of the characters in the novel describes how May Gaskell started sending books out to soldiers, beginning when Gaskell's son-in-law was wounded in the Boer War.

"She sent him books and magazines to distract him from the misery of it all. Apparently, it's what got him through, so May decided on the first day of war that British soldiers in France would never be without stories to take their mind of the suffering. She was in her sixties by then but she was a remarkable woman and well connected enough to make it happen. She persuaded somebody to lend her a house in Marble Arch and turned it into a book warehouse. People sent things in from all over the country. One day we'd get dirty packets of rubbish from Finchley, the next, thirty thousand volumes from a country house would turn up.

"People were donating entire libraries. On a good day, the vans bringing in the books blocked the traffic all round Marble Arch. We sent them to hospitals all over the world, not just France."

Later the project was taken over by the Red Cross.

The book creates a quaint, past world with sufficient detail to make the novel enticing and haunting but the pace is fast enough for the reader to grip it tightly to the end.

An Expert in Murder by Nicola Upson is published by Faber and Faber at £12.99.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Atmospheric and well-written... but not as good as the second in the series
I read Upson's Angel with Two Faces recently and loved it so much that I then read this, her first book in the series. Read more
Published 16 days ago by Roman Clodia

4.0 out of 5 stars Theatrical goings-on
Nicola Upson has done excellent research on London in the 1930s and its theatrical world. Her heroine is Josephine Tey, who, under that name, had written detective stories and... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Ralph Blumenau

5.0 out of 5 stars An Expert in Murder
Excellent service., The book arrived very promptly and in
excellent condition. Very impressed.
Published 3 months ago by Lila M

5.0 out of 5 stars Lilies are more fashionable...
I am not a particular fan of detective fiction, and got this book two days ago when a friend offered me the free book in a three for the price of two offer. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Ms. M. Hoare

3.0 out of 5 stars Marple Redux
The writer Josephine Tey (the pseudonym of Elizabeth Mackintosh) forms the central character for this who-dunnit set in the theatrical world of 1930s London. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Dr. Cath L. Murphy

4.0 out of 5 stars *HOMAGE TO THE INCOMPARABLE JOSEPHINE TEY*
Choosing Josephine Tey to 'star' in a mystery series is a bold move. How can anyone match her? My expectations were unrealistic & Nicola Upson's novel is crowded with so many... Read more
Published 10 months ago by mcHaiku

2.0 out of 5 stars Not quite good enough
I so wanted to like this book. I have read the Josephine Tey novels and many others of the so-called Golden Age of Detective Fiction and was hoping for something along the same... Read more
Published 10 months ago by C. Carter

4.0 out of 5 stars Pleasant and well-written without being particularly memorable
Josephine Tey, the real-life writer of `golden age' crime fiction, is on a train travelling to London and to negotiate the future of her play `Richard of Bordeaux. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Snapdragon

1.0 out of 5 stars What a disappointment!
As an admirer of Josephine Tey's detective novels, I bought 'An Expert in Murder' in the expectation of a great read. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Va Curtis

4.0 out of 5 stars Theatrical murder
The writer becomes the detective in this first novel by Nicola Upson. Josephine Tey was one of the best writers of detective fiction in the Golden Age. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Lynette Baines

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