Thomas F. (hardtack) -
Josephine Tey (real name Elizabeth Mackintosh) is recognized as one of the great British mystery writers. It's a shame she didn't write more mysteries than she did, but she was busy as a playwright and also wrote historical novels. Her period was before and after World War II. I've read most of her mysteries and they are intellectually fantastic. Oh, why didn't she do more of them!
Nicola Upson uses Tey as one of the main protagonists in her "Josephine Tey" mysteries. In the novel, Tey's close male friend is a Scotland Yard Inspector.
This is only the second of Upson's novels about Tey and I was very disappointed. I expect Tey would be too, if not outright screaming red in the face, and uttering death threats.
First, the novel was overly long, 422 pages. Second, Upson decided the novel needed sex---a lot of it. There is heterosexual and homeosexual sex, okay so far, but then there is juvenile sex, with ten and thirteen-year-old girls, oral sex with a Church of England vicar, and finally, at least two cases of incest. Since the novel takes place on a Cornish farming estate, one wonders why Upson left out sex with animals.
Upson spends a lot of time describing how almost everyone who lives on the estate has dark and terrible life experiences. Apparently, no one is happy. The novel takes place in the late 1930s. Since the coming war---World War II---is alluded to several times, you have to wonder if the best thing for everyone in the book would be for all of them to be in chapel on a Sunday morning during the Blitz and have a German bomber blow it away and end their unhappy, miserable lives.
Still, I can understand how unhappy you might feel if your parents screamed at you, calling you dirty names, simply because you were caught having sex with your sister. I mean, if you've been doing it for years, why yell at you this time? So, it's understandable why you would burn the house down to kill them.
Spoiler: I guess my only favorite part of the book was when the Scotland Yard inspector thrashes one of the characters, causing that person to have a heart attack, and apparently gets away with it. And when other characters find out about this from the inspector himself, and hearing the character is now in the hospital, ask the inspector, "How is he? Is he...?"
That's when the inspector replies, "I'm sorry to say that yes---he is still alive. But it was serious, so there's every reason to hope that he may take a turn for the worst, in the next few hours." Which isn't something you normally expect mystery-book Scotland Yard inspectors to say, let alone real ones.
Nicola Upson uses Tey as one of the main protagonists in her "Josephine Tey" mysteries. In the novel, Tey's close male friend is a Scotland Yard Inspector.
This is only the second of Upson's novels about Tey and I was very disappointed. I expect Tey would be too, if not outright screaming red in the face, and uttering death threats.
First, the novel was overly long, 422 pages. Second, Upson decided the novel needed sex---a lot of it. There is heterosexual and homeosexual sex, okay so far, but then there is juvenile sex, with ten and thirteen-year-old girls, oral sex with a Church of England vicar, and finally, at least two cases of incest. Since the novel takes place on a Cornish farming estate, one wonders why Upson left out sex with animals.
Upson spends a lot of time describing how almost everyone who lives on the estate has dark and terrible life experiences. Apparently, no one is happy. The novel takes place in the late 1930s. Since the coming war---World War II---is alluded to several times, you have to wonder if the best thing for everyone in the book would be for all of them to be in chapel on a Sunday morning during the Blitz and have a German bomber blow it away and end their unhappy, miserable lives.
Still, I can understand how unhappy you might feel if your parents screamed at you, calling you dirty names, simply because you were caught having sex with your sister. I mean, if you've been doing it for years, why yell at you this time? So, it's understandable why you would burn the house down to kill them.
Spoiler: I guess my only favorite part of the book was when the Scotland Yard inspector thrashes one of the characters, causing that person to have a heart attack, and apparently gets away with it. And when other characters find out about this from the inspector himself, and hearing the character is now in the hospital, ask the inspector, "How is he? Is he...?"
That's when the inspector replies, "I'm sorry to say that yes---he is still alive. But it was serious, so there's every reason to hope that he may take a turn for the worst, in the next few hours." Which isn't something you normally expect mystery-book Scotland Yard inspectors to say, let alone real ones.
