An Expert in Murder by Nicola Upson
Faber and Faber, 304pp, £7.99

Josephine Tey, the renowned Golden Age crime writer, has been transformed into a fictional heroine in this debut whodunnit. Elizabeth Mackintosh used the pseudonym for her popular mystery novels in the 1930s. She also wrote plays as Gordon Daviot, propelling herself and her leading man, John Gielgud, to stardom with Richard of Bordeaux.

Josephine is travelling to London to discuss the future of this play when a young girl she befriends on the train is murdered. Messages left at the scene convince Inspector Archie Penrose that Tey was the intended victim, his interrogations unfolding amidst the glamour and grit of 1930s theatreland.

Ms Upson avoids the Miss Marple comparisons - murder on a train and a female crime sleuth - by using Penrose, not Tey herself, as her detective. The play and its actors cleverly provide a plot packed with a labyrinth of secrets, betrayals and jealousies. The detailed evocation of the West End and of a generation still living in the shadow of the First World War adds to the book's suspenseful quality. Intended as a series, this story promises further mysterious episodes.
Georgina Blackwell