Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey

First Line: "Aunt Bee," said Jane, breathing heavily into her soup, "was Noah a cleverer back-room boy than Ulysses, or was Ulysses a cleverer back-room boy than Noah?"

On the eve of his twenty-first birthday, Simon Ashby is poised to inherit Latchetts, a very profitable horse farm in the south of England. But then his older twin brother Patrick comes home. Patrick, who was presumed dead by suicide at the age of thirteen.

Patrick is, in fact, an orphan named Brat Farrar who has an uncanny resemblance to Simon. Brat has been carefully and expertly coached in all things Patrick, and he's so successful that he's welcomed back into the Ashby family.

It looks as though Brat is going to be able to pull off the deception until old secrets emerge that put not only his plan but also his life in danger.

~

For the most part, Golden Age mystery writers leave me cold. There is one exception, however: Josephine Tey. Her originality of thought, her dialogue, her characters, her subtlety... she just suits my mystery-loving mind right down to the ground. Brat Farrar, like Tey's The Daughter of Time, is considered to be one of the best mysteries ever written, and I'm not going to argue with this assessment.

There's something about how Tey lets us in on the con from the beginning. We know Brat is not Patrick Ashby, but as we see things through his eyes, and as we see the effect he has on the people around him, we almost want to flout the law and let him assume Patrick's place for time and all eternity. 

Let's see... we know Brat is an imposter, and it's really not all that difficult to deduce what really happened to Patrick eight years ago. The real mystery is how everything is going to turn out for Brat. We know he's done wrong, but we still want him to be happy. We still want him living at Latchetts. And as for Latchetts, even Dick Francis couldn't do a better job at depicting a horse farm.

After thoroughly enjoying Brat Farrar, I have to wonder why there hasn't been a modern film adaptation of it because it would be perfect. (Who cares that the whole situation could be solved by a DNA test today? The book is set right after World War II.) What I don't have to wonder about is which Josephine Tey mystery I will be savoring next. I am slowly working my way through her books, and enjoying myself every step of the way.

Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey

ISBN: 9780684803852

Scribner © 1997

Originally published 1950.

Paperback, 288 pages

 

Classic Mystery, Standalone

Rating: A+

Source: Purchased from Book Outlet.

To Love and Be Wise by Josephine Tey

First Line: Grant paused with his foot on the lowest step, and listened to the shrieking from the floor above.

The little backwater village of Salcott St. Mary has become a refuge for celebrities-- writers, artists, actors, radio presenters-- so it should come as no surprise that handsome photographer Leslie Searle should make an appearance there. After all, Hollywood stars begged to be photographed by him. But the entire village is thrown on its ear when Searle goes missing. Why did he vanish? And how? Is Searle's disappearance a practical joke... or murder? It's up to Inspector Alan Grant to get to the bottom of the mystery.

Josephine Tey continues to be about the only "Golden Age" mystery writer that I care for (although I have begun making inroads on Dorothy L. Sayers), and To Love and Be Wise continues my admiration of her writing. 

The cast of characters sparkles. The celebrities are all eccentric in their own little ways. Some of them make you laugh, some of them make you shake your head, and some just make you want to slap them. The excellent working relationship of Grant and the trusty Detective Sergeant Williams is further explained. And that disappearance of Leslie Searle is truly puzzling-- although Tey plants a vital clue to its solution at the very beginning of the story.

More than anything else-- especially with Williams being pulled away to conclude a case in London-- the pace is slow and deliberate, as though Grant is taking a leisurely stroll through the suspect pool and trying the noose on each of them for size. And as he's sizing them up, the reader is allowed to do much the same. I found To Love and Be Wise quite refreshing. No electronics to fuss with. No serial killers to be in fear of. Just a very real puzzle: what on earth really happened to Leslie Searle? And... why didn't I pay more attention to that clue at the very beginning of the book? At the rate I'm going, I may actually become a fan of these classic mysteries!
  

To Love and Be Wise by Josephine Tey

eISBN: 9781476733319

Touchstone © 2012

Originally published 1950.

eBook, 259 pages

Police Procedural, #4 Detective Inspector Alan Grant msytery

Rating: B+

Source: Purchased from Amazon.

An Expert in Murder by Nicola Upson

Title: An Expert in Murder
Author: Nicola Upson
ISBN: 9780061451553
Publisher: Harper, 2009
Paperback, 320 pages
Genre: Historical Mystery, #1 Josephine Tey mystery
Rating: A
Source: Purchased from Bookcloseouts.

First Line: Had she been superstitious, Josephine Tey might have realised the odds were against her when she found that her train, the early-morning express from the Highlands, was running an hour and a half late.

No one could be more surprised than Josephine Tey that her play, Richard of Bordeaux, is the hit of the 1934 theatre season in London. She boards the train from Inverness to London to attend the play's final week and strikes up a conversation with a very personable young girl in the same compartment. To Josephine's shock, the young girl is murdered shortly after the train reaches London.

A friend of Josephine's, Detective Inspector Archie Penrose, is convinced that the murder is connected to the play, and that Josephine herself is in danger. When a second murder occurs, the policeman and the playwright find themselves working together to catch a killer.

Author Nicola Upson has done a marvelous job of blending fact and fiction in the character of Josephine Tey. (I don't read many "classic" or "golden age" mysteries, but even I know about Josephine Tey and her wonderful books. She is a very under-appreciated writer.) Upson's historical detail isn't at all overwhelming, and sets just the right tone in transporting a reader into the 1930s.

I had managed to identify the killer and a cohort, but I did not deduce the Why of it all because I was enjoying the characters, the setting, and the twists and turns of the plot so much. I look forward to reading the other books in the series, and would recommend them to anyone who has enjoyed reading Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs series, the Bess Crawford series written by Charles Todd, or the books of Suzanne Arruda.

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