If you haven’t yet discovered Nicola Upson’s excellent historical crime series, here’s your chance.
This novel takes place in the early days of World War Two as war is declared and children evacuated en masse to the country. The Suffolk village in which Josephine Tey is living ends up with a lot more evacuees than planned, forcing those who didn’t want to take children to open their homes – the scene in the village hall where the evacuees are being homed made me really think of ‘Bedknobs and Broomsticks’ in all the best ways! When a child goes missing, Tey and the villagers start asking questions and pointing fingers…
As with all of the novels, Upson’s sense of time and place is impeccable. In this case, wartime London and Suffolk are evoked beautifully – and I was particularly pleased that part of the action centres on the Tiptree jam factory (where I had the pleasure of a summer job back when I was a student – many days de-stoning plums!) There is a palpable sense of the unease in Tey’s Suffolk home, a cosy village, when it turns out that there is danger within the complacent, small, close-knit community. There is also a real sense of the panic and chaos of London as children are evacuated – along with the grief and worry of those left behind in the city.
I love that Upson’s detective is a real life crime writer, Josephine Tey. Her status as author takes more of a back seat in this novel, but she is an interesting and rounded character – there’s good continuity and credibility in the way that she acts, giving the sense that Upson really ‘knows’ her heroine well.
The action of this novel is – as always – cleverly plotted, but the real strength of Upson’s novels is the emotional depth. Given the emotive topic – child evacuation and also abduction – it goes without saying that there is a profound sense of tragedy running through the novel. This is obviously strongest around the missing child, but the grief around the mass evacuation is also pitched perfectly – the idea of putting small children on trains out of the capital, not knowing where they were going or to whom, is heartbreaking and Upson communicates this with authenticity and sensitivity.
This is a series that I’ve followed from the start (‘An Expert in Murder’) – which I’d recommend really so that you get the full back story of Josephine’s relationship with Marta and her friendship with Detective Chief Inspector Archie Penrose. This is book 10 so you have some really enjoyable catching up to do! However, the mysteries would all work as standalones so don’t be put off if you haven’t read previous books.
Thanks to NetGalley for the book in exchange for an honest review.
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If you want to start at the beginning, this is Book 1 (affiliate link):
Header photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
