Review by Booklist Review
Mystery author and amateur sleuth Josephine Tey has a personal reason for trying to find the truth about a decades-old death. She was present and had tried to save 16-year-old Dorothy Norwood, who died in what was ruled an accident at a girls' horticultural college in Sussex in 1915. Josephine was a teacher at the college, founded by Georgina Hartford-Wroe and Harriet Barker (familiarly known as George and Harry), which was successful in both teaching and providing produce during wartime, but its gardens were savagely destroyed after Norwood's death and the revelation of its founders' lesbian relationship. In 1938, an innuendo-laden newspaper piece brings up the 1915 death, hinting that it was murder and even that Josephine, by then a playwright of note, might be a suspect, spurring her to investigate and acknowledge her first love for a fellow teacher. Only in 1948, in chapters that bracket the book, is the truth revealed. Upson's eighth Josephine Tey mystery intriguingly combines murder with stories of love in the face of hateful bias. A notable addition to this fine series.--Michele Leber Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Upson's magnificent eighth whodunit featuring real-life mystery author Josephine Tey (after 2017's Nine Lessons) finds Josephine in Cambridge, England, in 1938, overseeing the rehearsal of one of her plays when she receives a copy of an upsetting newspaper article. In 1915, at a horticultural college in Sussex, 16-year-old Dorothy Norwood, the twin sister of stage actress Betty Banks, died in an apparent accident in the college's greenhouse soon after she accused the two women who ran the school of being lovers. Betty, who found Dorothy's body, is now suggesting that her sister was murdered and insinuates that Josephine, who was a chaperone at the school at the time, is implicated in the crime. Fearful that her own secrets, including her current romantic relationship with a woman, will be exposed, Josephine again turns detective. The significance of the opening, in which an unknown woman commits suicide in 1948, eventually becomes painfully clear. As always, Upson couples an engrossing plot with a nuanced and poignant look at human passions and frailties. Fans of golden-age mysteries will be more than satisfied. Agent: Gráinne Fox, Fletcher & Co. (Oct.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
In the eighth "Josephine Tey" mystery from Upson (after Nine Lessons), Josephine is directing a play in Cambridge in 1938 when events that occurred during World War I return to haunt her, placing her reputation and her current relationship with screenwriter Marta at risk. At Marta's suggestion, Josephine travels to Sussex to revisit the horticultural college where she taught briefly. The story flashes back to 1915, a stormy night, and an accidental death that may not have been an accident. At the college, Josephine first acknowledges her attraction to women and then sees the consequences of such a relationship as the two women who run the college are vilified in the aftermath of a student's death. As she unravels the mystery of that death, Josephine must also come to terms with her own actions toward another teacher. VERDICT A challenging murder mystery, a look at the social pressures on those who were nonconformists, and a strong sense of place combine to make this a fascinating read. Fans of historical British mystery series and Tey's books will find much to enjoy.--Terry Lucas, Shelter Island P.L., NY
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Real-life mystery writer Josephine Tey's eighth encounter with fictional crime toggles back and forth between her brush with murder during her early years as a teacher and the time a generation later when the chickens come home to roost.Hearing about the 1938 London production of Lillian Hellman's The Children's Hour floods Josephine, whose play The Laughing Woman is premiering at Cambridge's Arts Theater, with traumatic memories of the summer of 1915, when rumors about the affair between Georgina Hartford-Wroe and Harriet Barker, partners in the horticultural school Moira House, came to a head with the death of Dorothy Norwood, who, like Hellman's schoolgirl Mary Tilford, had lodged scandalous accusations against George and Harry. Although the coroner's court delivered a verdict of death by misadventure, the damage was done: The neighbors' suspicion and hatred of the couple, fanned by the assumption that Dorothy was murdered, flared out against George and Harry, forcing them to close the school overnight and sending them into exile. In 1938, Daily Mirror reporter Faith Hope, who as Charity Lomax was attending Moira House when the scandal erupted, seeks to resurrect it, linking it to Hellman's well-known play. When she descends on Josephine, the author and playwright has the best reason in the world to bridle, for on the very day Dorothy Norwood died, she consummated her love with fellow teacher Jeanette Sellwood, a secret Charity already seems to know even though Josephine (Sorry for the Dead, 2019, etc.) has never shared it even with her current lover, screenwriter Marta Fox, who helped Alfred Hitchcock bring Tey's 1936 novel, A Shilling for Candles, to the screen as Young and Innocent. When will the scandal of Moira House finally be laid to rest?Achingly perceptive about forbidden relationships and the unreasoning hatred they can provoke, then as now. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
