Also on my desk

  
     From the pretty to the pretty interesting: four parcels of books have just arrived (and I know there are more on the way!), so I've got lots of treats in store which I'll talk about soon, but top of the pile there is my current reading, An Expert in Murder by Nicola Upson.
    Having read two novels by Josephine Tey last year (The Franchise Affair and The Daughter of Time) I was keen to read this book which is the first in a series featuring Miss Tey as protagonist. Building a work of fiction around a real person is tricky stuff (though here are two books whose writers pulled it off beautifully), and in this case the author has the challenge of fashioning a tightly plotted detective story against an actual background - the world of London theatre in the 1930s - and of creating a convincing and well-rounded main character from someone about whom there seems to be a comparative lack of literature.
     I'm around half way through the book and despite one or two minor quibbles, am enjoying it very much, particularly its period detail and all the theatrical content - which includes Harriet D's parents!! Interesting also (and understandable in the context of substantive material to be utilised), that in the layering and blending of fact and fiction which is a feature of this type of thing, we see Jospehine Tey musing on the fact that she has used her friend Detective Inspector Archie Penrose as the basis for her own detective, Alan Grant. Are you still with me? If not, you'll have to read the book!

Comments

[Frances]

Absolutely still with you. Have to read this. Love Josephine Tey! Thanks so much.

[Elaine]

Having just rediscovered Josephine Tey and working my way through them again, this is a must

[Margaret Powling]

Tey on my List and also the Upson, but just bought four books with more on the way, so I think I'd better hold fire for the moment. The most sobering aspect isn't the bank statement when it comes to book buying but cleaning the bookshelves, which is what I'm just taking a break from! Cleaning bookshelves, as all book collectors will know, is not a job to be entered into lightly. Oh, dearie me no! Can anyone tell me, please, why they fit on the shelves before they are removed and then there is a little pile of 'left-overs' when they are put back, ones which don't seem to fit anywhere?
As well as lovely novels (A Civil Contract has arrived, plus The Spy Game ... I first typed the Sky Game and as we're all going digital that was perhaps a Freudian slip) I have just taken delivery of a lovely non-fiction book: English Watercolours, first pub. in 1950 but I've a more recent edition.
Oh, and if I don't comment again before Easter, have a lovely Easter, Cornflower and Mr Cornflower and all reading these comments. We plan to stay at home. The roads are for lemmings at Bank Holidays!

[Danielle]

The Upson novel is also on my pile. This is the second mention I've come across it today--I feel like joining in!

[Danielle]

I see it took me a while to get to it! :) In a way Josephine didn't have a lot to do with the actual detecting part of the story, so I'll be curious to see where Upson takes the story next. It's interesting when an author chooses to 'fictionalize' a real person--you're right that it can be very tricky. And I still need to read Daphne...