Have you any idea how strange it is to read a crime novel in which members of your family appear as characters? But such has been my experience with two of Nicola Upson's novels, An Expert in Murder (2008 -- you can read my review of it here) -- and now the most recent one, Two For Sorrow.
This is actually the third in a series which I suspect will run and run. Nicola Upson has hit upon a smart idea, though not a wholly original one -- instead of inventing a detective, she has resurrected a real one, or rather a real writer of detective fiction. This is Josephine Tey, in my opinion one of the finest writers of crime novels in the mid-20th century. Confusingly, Josephine Tey was actually a pseudonym used by Elizabeth Mackintosh, a lady from Inverness who also wrote plays using the name Gordon Daviot. But that's by the by, really, as Upson wisely uses the name under which she is best known.
Like An Expert in Murder, this new novel is set in 1930s London. Josephine is staying at her club,The Cowdray, and and working on a new book. This one is to be a fictionalised account of two women, Amelia Sach and Annie Walters. Famous as the 'Finchley baby farmers', they were hanged in Holloway Prison in the early years of the century after being found guilty of murdering babies. Josephine is hoping for some help and advice from her old teacher, Celia Bannerman, who, before taking up teaching, had been a wardress in Holloway and had known Amelia Sach. Also helping and advising her is her friend, Detective Inspector Archie Penrose. But soon she and Archie have something rather closer to hand to be concerned with. A young woman, recently released from prison, is found horrifically murdered in the workroom of the costume makers' business where she has been working. And although initially this seems to be a quite separate matter from Josephine's research, links start to appear and it becomes clear that the past, far from being dead and buried, is making itself felt in powerful but mysterious ways.
Unfortunately I not only guessed the identity of the murderer, which in any case is revealed some way before the end, but also anticipated the twist which comes in the final pages. I do hate it when that happens. I'd love to say it didn't spoil my enjoyment but obviously it does, just a bit. However there is still a great deal to enjoy in this novel. The uncovering of the (true) facts of the Sach/Walters case and of baby farming in general is fascinating and chilling, and the research into prison conditions in the early twentieth century obviously meticulous. In addition, Josephine's social life mainly revolves around the theatre world of London's West End, and we meet numerous characters who are based on real people with only their names changed. So Josephine's actress friend Lydia is actually Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies, and Gwen's lifetime partner Marda Vanne appears as the beautiful, troubled Marta. Indeed Marta's attempts to seduce Josephine include sending her pages of a journal which, as Nicola Upson reveals in the Afterword, are taken verbatim from a journal letter written by the real Marda Vanne to the real Josephine Tey. Goodness! And, as I said at the beginning, my own relatives also appear -- my mother, Sophie Harris, as Lettice Motley and my aunt Margaret Harris as Ronnie Motley. In real life, Motley was the name under which they worked as theatre designers at this period, and their workshop in St Martin's Lane is here described in detail and indeed becomes the scene of the first murder. Strange. I am eagerly awaiting my father's appearance in one of Nicola Upson's forthcoming novels. But all of that notwithstanding, I think she does a great job of mingling fact and fiction. A very enjoyable read.