Nicola Upson
THE tragic death of a young girl on the Sussex Downs
twenty-three years ago comes back to haunt crime writer Josephine Tey when she
is named as a suspect in what some are now claiming was actually a murder.
Sorry for the Dead is the eighth book in Nicola Upson’s
outstandingly intelligent and atmospheric Josephine Tey Mystery series, set in
England between the wars and inspired by the Golden Age of crime writing.
For those new to a name which shone brightly in this period,
Josephine Tey was a pseudonym used by the enigmatic Elizabeth Mackintosh, a
Scottish author best known for her mystery novels of the 1940s and 50s.
Virtually unknown today, Tey has been given a new lease of
life as the lead character in Cambridge graduate Upson’s cleverly plotted
novels which see the best-selling crime author and playwright turn detective to
solve cerebral mysteries and give voice to the downtrodden silenced by both
society and history.
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| SUPERBLY PLOTTED NOVEL: Nicola Upson |
Elegant, sophisticated and beautifully written, the stories
blend fact and fiction, contrasting the stark realities of everyday life in the
1930s and 40s with the glamorous world of theatre and film, and exploring
hard-hitting issues that are as relevant today as they were eight or nine
decades ago.
Here, we find Josephine in 1948, busy directing one of her
own plays at Cambridge’s newly opened Arts Theatre, only to learn that a
national newspaper is running a story about the violent death of a 16-year-old girl
at a learning centre in East Sussex in 1915 when Josephine was a teacher there.
Actress Elizabeth Banks is convinced that the death of her
twin Dorothy Norwood was not an accident and wants to find the truth of what
happened at Charleston Farmhouse, near Lewes, which was turned into a horticultural
college for girls during the Great War. The house, now owned by Vanessa Bell, sister of Virginia
Woolf, and Duncan Grant, was run by friends Georgina Hartford-Wroe and Harriet
Barker, whose relationship set tongues wagging and brought terrible heartache
for them both.
Pictures in the newspaper show Josephine, who was a keep-fit
instructor at the college at the time of Dorothy’s death, making her a suspect
in any new investigation. Fearing that her own same-sex relationship with
partner Marta could be revealed by the newspapers, Josephine sets out to make
her own enquiries.
But as past and present collide, and with murders decades
apart, Josephine is forced to face the possibility that the scandal which
threatened to destroy the lives of Georgina and Harriet hid a much darker
secret.
The inspiration for Sorry for the Dead, Upson reveals, was a
visit to Charleston, the East Sussex country home of artists Vanessa Bell and
Duncan Grant, and it is against the unconventional lifestyle and big names of
the famous Bloomsbury group that the story plays out.
But Upson’s compelling mystery is as much a piercing and
emotional study of friendship, loyalty, grief, prejudice, and forbidden love as
it is a fascinating murder mystery, slipping effortlessly between places,
people and timelines as the dark truth of Dorothy’s death is slowly and
shockingly revealed.
And there are many moving moments in this superbly plotted
novel which brims with authentic dialogue, rich period detail and atmosphere,
and portrays each character with such exquisite precision that the reader can
almost peer into the workings of their soul. With its compelling fusion of fact and fiction, mystery and
social insight, this is a series that grows in stature with every book.
(Faber & Faber, hardback, £12.99)
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