a question of authorship: Nicola Upson’s An Expert in Murder
The only thing I could even pretend to dislike about Josephine Tey is that she wrote so few detective novels. Luckily, the books are so well written that already knowing the identity of the murderer only slightly lessens the pleasure of reading her novels. That said, Nicola Upson’s An Expert in Murder is a fun way to visit Tey’s world.
It begins on a train, where Josephine Tey meets Elspeth Simmons, a young woman who is an enormous fan of Tey’s play, Richard of Bordeaux. Tey is charmed by Elspeth’s innocence and enthusiasm and looks forward to meeting her again at a show later in the week. Sadly, Elspeth never makes it out of the train station. She is murdered in the train compartment: a hair pin embedded in her heart, two dolls staring at her, and an iris laid at her feet.
The repercussions from Elspeth’s murder quickly find their way into Tey’s theatre circle. Soon, Lydia, the starring actress in Tey’s play, the Motleys, the set designers, and Aubrey Bernard, the owner of the theatre, slowly become involved in the case. The other theatre-goers, stage-hands, and simple fans are both witnesses and suspects, and it becomes clear that the trigger that lead to Elspeth’s death is buried deep in the relationships of the people involved. Even the investigating detective, Archie Penrose, is an old friend of Tey’s from before the war.
One of the strengths of the book is Upson’s ability to evoke the years just after World War I. The cenotaph, the hyper-awareness of the populace, and the scars carried by the soldiers who returned and the families of those who did not are important to the plot and the atmosphere. At times, this atmosphere becomes more important than the murders, and the book definitely feels like an introduction to a series.
The first murder is followed by another, equally as choreographed and terrible, and soon Tey and Penrose are uncovering the sort of secrets others may believe worth killing for. It must be noted that Tey is not taking the lead in the investigating here. Instead, she is used as a foil for the official investigation, and Penrose makes use of her more approachable demeanor as an additional tool in his investigation. All of this is complicated, of course, by Penrose’s unstated feelings for Tey, and Tey’s uncertainty about what to do.
A central theme in the book is the question of authorship and ownership. Tey has lived through a terrible court trial accusing her of plagiarism in her play, and there are manuscripts and plays from other authors floating all around the novel. Who wrote what, and why, letters, plays, novels, and notes, reveals much about the murders and the history behind them. Upson has taken a risk by putting a beloved and talented author at the centre of her story, and, for the most part, she pulls it off. However, Tey, in the end, is more important than the murders, and it is her reactions we are left to contemplate and try to understand.