1 September 1939
As the mass evacuation takes place across Britain, thousands of children leave London for the countryside, but when a little girl vanishes without trace, it seems that danger can lurk in the quietest village.
In the chaos of war, crime novelist Josephine Tey struggles with the prospect of change. When a cloud of mistrust falls across the small community she has come to love, the conflict becomes personal and events take a sinister turn.
Blending a Golden Age mystery with the timeless fears of a child's abduction, Dear Little Corpses is a haunting snapshot of a country at war, when no one is above suspicion.
A snowy Christmas gathering on an island off the Cornish coast goes murderously wrong in this festive Golden Age mystery.
December 1938, and storm clouds hover once again over Europe. Josephine Tey and Archie Penrose gather with friends for a Cornish Christmas, but two strange and brutal deaths on St Michael's Mount - and the unexpected arrival of a world famous film star, in need of sanctuary - interrupt the festivities. Cut off by the sea and a relentless blizzard, the hunt for a murderer begins.
Pivoting on a real moment in history, the ninth novel in the 'Josephine Tey' series draws on all the much-loved conventions of the Golden Age Christmas mystery, whilst giving them a thrilling contemporary twist.
At once a compelling murder mystery and a moving exploration of love and grief, critically acclaimed author Nicola Upson's eighth Josephine Tey mystery is a force to be reckoned with.
In the summer of 1915, the sudden death of a young girl brings grief and notoriety to Charleston Farmhouse on the Sussex Downs.
Years later, Josephine Tey returns to the same house - now much changed - and remembers the two women with whom she once lodged as a young teacher during the Great War. As past and present collide, with murders decades apart, Josephine is forced to face the possibility that the scandal which threatened to destroy those women's lives hid a much darker secret.
The First World War is over, and in a quiet Hampshire village, artist Stanley Spencer is working on the commission of a lifetime, painting an entire chapel in memory of a life lost in the war to end all wars. Combining his own traumatic experiences with moments of everyday redemption, the chapel will become his masterpiece. When Elsie Munday arrives to take up position as housemaid to the Spencer family, her life quickly becomes entwined with the charming and irascible Stanley, his artist wife Hilda and their tiny daughter Shirin. As the years pass, Elsie does her best to keep the family together even when love, obsession and temptation seem set to tear them apart...
"The arrival of a new and assured talent." P D JAMES on An Expert in Murder
'A brilliant evocation of the Bohemian world of artist Stanley Spencer and the women that surrounded him. ...a work of painterly beauty and deep integrity.' Wendy Wallace, author of The Painted Bridge
'An intriguing story of artistic temperament, domestic turmoil, and remembrance. Nicola Upson weaves a web of creative and private passions.' Katie Ward, author of Girl Reading
'An exquisite, lyrical novel... The English countryside of a hundred years past comes alive in every flower, every tender unsent letter, every contrary shifting of the human heart behind a closed cottage door. I absolutely loved it.' Stephanie Cowell, author of Claude and Camille:A Novel of Monet
In the years before the Great War, M.R. James told ghost stories by candlelight to a handful of friends and scholars. Now, twenty-five years later, those men are being killed off one by one. Josephine Tey is in Cambridge, a town gripped by fear as a serial rapist stalks the streets, and Chief Inspector Archie Penrose faces some of the most horrific murders of his career. Archie and Josephine must race to stop another attack in this beautifully written, intricately plotted mystery.
Josephine Tey, a sharp-witted amateur sleuth based on the celebrated Golden Age mystery writer, returns in the seventh in Nicola Upson's critically acclaimed series, perfect for readers of Agatha Christie and Jacqueline Winspear.Called to the peaceful wooded churchyard of St John-at-Hampstead, Detective Chief Inspector Archie Penrose faces one of the most audacious and unusual murders of his career. The body of the church's organist is found in an opened grave, together with a photograph of a manor house and a cryptic note. The image leads Archie to Cambridge, where the crisp autumn air has brought with it bustling life to the ancient university and town.Mystery author Josephine Tey and Archie's lover Bridget Foley have each recently settled in Cambridge, though both women are not equally happy to see him. One has concealed an important secret from Archie which now threatens to come to light. Meanwhile, the change of seasons has also brought with it a series of vicious attacks against women in town, spreading fear and suspicion through the community.Soon, another body is revealed, and in the shadow of King's College Chapel, Archie uncovers a connection twenty-five years old which haunted both victims-as well as some of their living companions. As Archie and Josephine each grapple with savage malefactors intent on making their victims pay, they must race to stop another attack in this beautifully written, intricately plotted mystery.
Intrepid writer and amateur sleuth Josephine Tey returns in this sixth installment in Nicola Upson's popular series-perfect for fans of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot and Jaqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs-that unfolds in 1930s London as England prepares to crown a new king.
London, 1937. Following the gloomy days of the abdication of King Edward VIII, the entire city is elated to welcome King George. Just one of the many planned festivities for the historic coronation is a BBC radio adaptation of Queen of Scots, and the original playwright, Josephine Tey, has been invited to sit in on rehearsals.
Soon, however, Josephine gets wrapped up in another sort of drama. The lead actress has been sleeping with Britain's most venerable newsman, Anthony Beresford-and his humiliated wife happens to work in the building. The sordid affair seems to reach its bloody climax when Beresford is shot to death in his broadcasting booth at the deafening height of the coronation ceremony.
Josephine's dear friend Detective Chief Inspector Archie Penrose has the case wrapped up before long. But when a second, seemingly related murder throws Penrose for a loop, it falls to Josephine to unravel a web of betrayal, jealousy, and long-held secrets ... caught all the while in a love triangle of her own making.
Charming and provocative, thick with the atmosphere of prewar England, London Rain is a captivating portrait of a city on the edge-and an unforgettable woman always one step ahead of her time.
"The coronation of George VI in 1937 provides the backdrop for Upson's psychologically complex and twisty sixth whodunit featuring real-life mystery writer Josephine Tey...Upson adroitly confounds the reader's expectations, and her subtle and emotionally intelligent exploration of Josephine's relationship with her lover, Marta Hallard, adds depth."-Publishers Weekly (starred review)
May, 1937, and London prepares to crown a new king. At the height of the Coronation celebrations, Detective Chief Inspector Archie Penrose is called to the BBC to investigate the murder of a famous broadcaster, a death which Josephine Tey suspects is linked to a decade-old scandal. With Archie's hands tied by politics, it is left to Josephine to get to the truth. Soon she is forced to confront at first-hand the deadly consequences of love, deceit and betrayal.
In this atmospheric, intriguing historical mystery brimming with psychological tension, an unexpected inheritance plunges beloved British mystery author Josephine Tey into a disturbing puzzle of dark secrets eerily connecting the present and the past.
When Josephine Tey unexpectedly inherits Red Barn Cottage from her estranged godmother, the will stipulates that she must personally claim the house in the Suffolk countryside. But Josephine is not the only benefactor; a woman named Lucy Kyte is also in Hester's will.
Sorting through the artifacts of her godmother's life, Josephine is intrigued by an infamous death committed on the cottage's grounds a century before. Yet this old crime-dubbed the Red Barn Murder-still seems to haunt the tight-knit village and its remote inhabitants. Is it just superstition, or is there a very real threat that is frightening the locals? Could the truth be related to the mysterious Lucy Kyte, who no one in the village admits to knowing?
With a palpable sense of evil thickening around her, Josephine must untangle historic tragedy from present danger and prevent a deadly cycle from beginning once more.
Summer, 1936: Josephine Tey joins her friends in the resort village of Portmeirion to celebrate her fortieth birthday. Alfred Hitchcock and his wife, Alma Reville, are there to sign a deal to film Josephine's novel, A Shilling for Candles, and Alfred Hitchcock has one or two tricks up his sleeve to keep the holiday party entertained-and expose their deepest fears. But things get out of hand when one of Hollywood's leading actresses is brutally slashed to death in a cemetery near the village. The following day, fear and suspicion take over in a setting where nothing-and no one-is quite what it seems.
The latest atmospheric thirties mystery featuring bestselling crime author Josephine Tey.
When Josephine Tey inherits a remote Suffolk cottage from her godmother, it comes full of secrets. There's the infamous Red Barn murders, committed in the grounds a century before, and there's Lucy Kyte, the mysterious beneficiary of her godmother's will. Josephine knows that there is something dark that has a hold on this small community. Is it the sinister ghosts of the Red Barn murders, or is there something very much alive that she needs to beware of?
The Death of Lucy Kyte is both an intriguing insight into the dilemmas of Tey's personal life and a disturbing story of obsession, abuse and deceit.
Summer, 1936. Writer Josephine Tey joins her friends in Portmeirion, meeting with Alfred Hitchcock to sign film deal. Hitchcock has a few tricks planned to keep the party entertained, but things get out of hand when a Hollywood actress is brutally murdered. As fear and suspicion take over, Chief Inspector Archie Penrose becomes unsatisfied with the investigation. Several years later another horrific murder drives Penrose back to Portmeirion to uncover the shocking truth.
