It’s been three years since I last wrote about this series and even longer since I did a proper post about them, although I have mentioned a couple in Recommendsday posts. Since that last series redux we’ve had an eleventh and now this week a twelfth book in the series. And I’ve also now read all of them – this is a series that I’ve read severely out of order and have picked up the ones that I’ve missed when they’ve been on offer on Kindle. So now I can give you a proper opinion on the whole series – including the latest book. And I’m going to start with the new one The Voices of the Dead.
In the latest book we’ve reached 1941 and the height of The Blitz as Josephine and her friends gather for Archie Penrose’s wedding. But as soon as the wedding is over Archie is off to Wales to help supervise the operation to move the National Gallery’s paintings to the safety of a slate mine. Josephine is also in the area on holiday in the hopes of spending some more time with Marta who is part of a film crew documenting the operation for newsreels. Also in Wales is Noel Coward who is working on his new play, which will star Margaret Rutherford as a clairvoyant. They’re all hoping for a peaceful time away from the terror of the bombings in London. But as the paintings are being moved in a roof collapses in part of the mine and reveals a body. It’s been there for decades and Archie’s superiors don’t want him to investigate just to move the paintings but that doesn’t sit right with Archie so he and Josephine start to investigate as best they can.
It’s a really good mystery – and if you haven’t read any of the series before it’s actually an OK entry point because all the characters are reintroduced at the start for the wedding and because the plot and secondary characters are fairly typical of the series. And that’s why I’ve started this post with that review of the new book. Because for me the thing that carries through the whole series is that it’s not just Josephine who is a real person being fictionalised – yes most of the people in her immediate circle are fictional (although based on real characters) the secondary characters are real people and the events that are going on are real – in this case it’s Noel Coward and Margaret Rutherford and the real life operation to move paintings to safety. In other books it’s been people like Alfred and Alma Hitchcock who adapted one of Tey’s plays. I particularly enjoyed the paintings plot because we went to Penrhyn Castle on our recent trip to Anglesey so I really appreciated the descriptions of the house which was one of the more boggling National Trust properties we have recently been to.
As I said back in that very first post about the series, they are often darker than you would expect – and this one is no different to that. But then mystery novels written in this era are often darker than you remember – or at least darker than you noticed when you read them as a child and don’t spot the subtext because you don’t understand it. Since I wrote that first series post I’ve read five more in the series – including the latest one – and they’ve all got four stars from me on Goodreads (and I finished this latest one just before the ability to do more than a full star came in) which is a sign of how much I like them.
These are very easy to get hold of – in my experience there’ll be at least one in any crime selection of even a reasonable size in a bookshop and I’m expecting this one to be in the new hardbacks section in shops too. And they’re in Kindle and Kobo too obviously. And it’s worth mentioning that Upson’s standalone Christmas mystery, The Christmas Clue, came out in paperback a couple of weeks ago too and so that should be fairly easy to get hold of as well.
Have a great weekend everyone!
