Very good - Rated 
This is an extremely interesting crime story set in the 1930s; the mystery is absorbing, the writing excellent and the characters interesting and likeable. The inclusion of real-life '30s detective writer Josephine Tey, about whom we convieniently know very little, so the author can take whatever liberties she likes with her life, makes it even more charming and the fact that it is not her that does the detecting helps to keep it realistically plausible. The portrayal of the "lost" generation, which came out of WW1, and how that war affected the mindset of an entire country takes it to a whole other level, as the book becomes worth reading in its own right, regardless of the mystery angle.
My only possible objection is that it doesn't seem to stay true to the period in certain aspects. For example, homosexuality certainly existed and I am willing to believe that in the theatre world it was even more or less excepted, but the idea that a homosexual couple would kiss in public, when homosexuality was an actual crime, is a bit of a stretch. However, anybody but a contemprary writer is bound to get at least a few things wrong, so this does not detract greatly from the novel.
Theatrical murder - Rated
The writer becomes the detective in this first novel by Nicola Upson. Josephine Tey was one of the best writers of detective fiction in the Golden Age. In this novel, she becomes a character, a suspect, and maybe even the next intended victim. Tey also wrote plays under the pseudonym Gordon Daviot, and had a great success in the 1930s with Richard of Bordeaux, her play about Richard II. On the train to London from Edinburgh for the final week of the run, Josephine meets a young fan, Elspeth Simmons, and is horrified when, on arrival at Kings Cross, Elspeth is murdered. There are hints that Josephine's play had something to do with the murder. Was Josephine the intended victim? Detective Inspector Archie Penrose of Scotland Yard, a friend of Josephine's, investigates. The novel gives a wonderful picture of London theatre life in the 30s, all the backstage gossip, the artifice behind the on-stage glamour. There were almost too many characters with too many hints of possible connections & motives. I enjoyed Archie Penrose, with his obvious echoes of Tey's fictional detective, Alan Grant, but there was a little too much flitting from one character to another. I would have liked more emphasis on the police investigation. This is an enjoyable novel with a great deal of atmosphere, and I'm looking forward to the next novel in the series.
great book - Rated 
I loved the blend of fact and fiction in this clever crime novel. To see Josephine Tey brought to life in this way was fascinating, and I'm particularly grateful that she wasn't made into some kind of amateur sleuth, but remained a real person caught up in events beyond her control. I found all the characters engaging and sympathetically protrayed, and like all good books in this genre I didn't guess the perpetrator until it was revealed, but when it was all the pieces fell neatly into place.
The book has since been passed on to my girlfriend (who had to take a day off work to finish it she got so caught up by the story) and my parents, where it received a similarly warm reception.
Can't wait for the next one.
A fabulous murder & mystery packed romp into 1930's theatreland - Rated
I am extremely impressed by this first novel. To precis it is a superbly wrought mix of a literary Agatha Christie blended with the fine characterisation and narrative of P.D. James ; giving a beautifully crafted sense of people, place and time.
Set in the 1930's, a period I personally have little interest in, and based around a fictional portrait of the author Josephine Tey (about whom I confess I knew next to nothing) I was immediately won over and sucked very rapidly and willingly into the plot concerning murders committed around and connected to the Josephine Tey play "Richard of Bordeaux" in its final weeks run at a London Theatre.
The plot interweaves family history, WW1, the vain glories of the theatre players, dark secrets and poignant love affairs in a most satisfying way. And of course there are murders and a police investigation headed up by Josephine's old friend - and soon I hope serialised sleuth ,Archie Penrose. Nicola Upson creates hugely memorable characters about whom you care, and there is a dry sardonic wit running through the book that refreshes.
I have a 2-a-week crime novel "addiction" and after so many years can usually identify the murderer before the end. Here I knew who it was by page 235 - and was totally wrong! Hurrah to Ms Upson for writing a super evocative first novel that kept this old crime story addict guessing right until the end!
Bring on book 2 of the series I say.
An Expert in Murder by Nicola Upson. Review by ANGELA SINGER - Rated
THIS first novel - and the start of a detective series - by arts writer Nicola Upson is a real page turner. The clues as to who has done the murder are kept close until it all unfolds at the end. Then it all opens up like the flowers on the cover.
Set in the theatreland of the 1930s and written in a lavish 1930s-style, the novel opens with a young girl, Elspeth Simmons being murdered on a train.
Elspeth is modelled on many a real-life theatre devotee of the time. The real Elspeths would have seen their favourite plays several times. This is fiction but set against historical facts. Elspeth is on her way to see Richard of Bordeaux by Josephine Tey, which ran for 463 performances at the New Theatre (now the Noel Coward Theatre) in St Martin's Lane.
To research the book, Upson interviewed people who knew Josephine Tey, including the actor John Gielgud.
Elspeth has a boyfriend who works at the theatre. She is travelling to meet him when she is stabbed in a railway carriage at King's Cross.
We are introduced to Detective Inspector Archie Penrose, the only man who can solve the mystery.
You can tell that Nicola Upson spent the 1990s as marketing manager of the Arts Theatre in Cambridge. She has a droll way of describing how news of the second murder - in a theatre dressing room - was received by the actors.
"Theatre is a self-obsessed medium at the best of times, but this was not the best of times....Gradually it filtered backstage, where certain members of the company experienced the uncomfortable sensation of talking about something other than themselves. They dealt with the novelty in different ways and according to type."
Set between the two world wars, there are also insights into how ordinary people had helped the war effort between 1914 and 1918.
One of the characters in the novel describes how May Gaskell started sending books out to soldiers, beginning when Gaskell's son-in-law was wounded in the Boer War.
"She sent him books and magazines to distract him from the misery of it all. Apparently, it's what got him through, so May decided on the first day of war that British soldiers in France would never be without stories to take their mind of the suffering. She was in her sixties by then but she was a remarkable woman and well connected enough to make it happen. She persuaded somebody to lend her a house in Marble Arch and turned it into a book warehouse. People sent things in from all over the country. One day we'd get dirty packets of rubbish from Finchley, the next, thirty thousand volumes from a country house would turn up.
"People were donating entire libraries. On a good day, the vans bringing in the books blocked the traffic all round Marble Arch. We sent them to hospitals all over the world, not just France."
Later the project was taken over by the Red Cross.
The book creates a quaint, past world with sufficient detail to make the novel enticing and haunting but the pace is fast enough for the reader to grip it tightly to the end.
An Expert in Murder by Nicola Upson is published by Faber and Faber at £12.99.
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