I'm just back from a wonderful family holiday in Sicily. While I was there I re-read one of my favourite Josephine Tey novels - possibly in fact my top favourite of her small but totally brilliant output.
This is the story of a young man, the eponymous Brat Farrar, who returns to England after eight years spent in the United States. Brat is an orphan - a foundling, in fact - and has been travelling restlessly, mostly working in stables as a farrier and rider. He's unsuccessfully job-seeking in London one day when he runs into a man who greets him as Simon before apologising profusely ' 'I thought you were a friend of mine'. It turns out that Brat is extraordinarily like Simon Ashby, a young man from a middle-class family living in the countryside and helping his aunt to run a stables and riding school. Alec Loding, whose family live nearby, has known the Ashbys from childhood, and, being rather a nasty piece of work, he's formed a plan which he puts to Brat. Brat will turn up at the Ashby's, claiming to be Patrick Ashby, Simon's twin, who seemingly committed suicide some eight years earlier, though the body has never been found. If he gets away with it, this will be of great financial benefit to Brat who, as Patrick was the older twin, will inherit a large fortune on his supposed 21st birthday - money that, of course, Simon is expecting to receive very soon. Once Brat comes into his money, he will provide a useful extra income to Alec in return for the period of intensive coaching the two of them now undertake.
By the end of three weeks, Brat is armed with enough knowledge of the Ashby family and their home surroundings to, hopefully, convince them that he really is Patrick. He begins with the family solicitor, who is completely won over, and at last turns up at the house. The family, though forewarned, is quite cautious, but eventually they are all won over -- all, that is, apart from Simon, who is angry and antagonistic. He also seems worryingly sure that this cannot be Patrick. Brat becomes increasingly suspicious - does Simon have something to hide?
I you haven't read this novel, you will be forming a rather negative picture of Brat by now. But Tey's great skill is in making him a wholly sympathetic character. Yes, he does undertake the impersonation, but he's been drawn to the place by the thought of being able to work with the horses, something that matters more to him than anything else in life. But when he meets and is so willingly accepted by the family, he starts to feel increasingly guilty about the deception, and in the end only stays on because of his increasing suspicions of Simon, who proves to be a very unsavoury and immoral character and who makes several attempts on Brat's life.
This is a true mystery story and one which, although I'd read it at least once before, completely grabbed me and gave me many happy hours of reading beside the pool! If you haven't read it, I strongly recommend that you do so.
