Nicola Upson's latest work is a truly sublime piece of literary detective fiction with an ensemble cast directed with real flair. The literary and criminal constructions are sharp, controlled and often surprising and the ending brings about both consolidation for the criminal plot and anticipation for the lives of the main characters Jospehine and Archie, paving the way neatly for the next volume in the series.
Angel with Two Faces follows on almost immediately from the last novel An Expert in Murder. Recovering from the shock of the crimes associated with her hit West End play Josephine gratefully accepts an invitation to stay with Inspector Archie Penrose on his family estate in Cornwall. The book begins with a funeral, that of Harry Pinching a young man well known to Archie and his family. This is a particularly tragic death as Harry and his twin sister are the sole carers for their eccentric teenage sister, as the Pinching parents died in a fire some years ago. Harry is believed to have been accidentally drowned but the strong sense that his former neighbours are covering things up leads Archie to question Harry's death.
The family lives and the estate lives that are portrayed in Angel with Two Faces are very reminiscent of Brat Farrar. The close partnership between warmth and hostility, between friendship and jealousy is the emotional canvas in both books. Like the theatreland of London in An Expert in Murder, Cornish life in the interwar period is almost an additional character. What really lifts Upson's work to date above the ordinary is this successful intertwining of place and community that has been so consistent across both books. In no other genre is it a greater strength to play-out such a complex layering of multiple personalities; rarely does any one figure take the lead or become the prime candidate or red herring. The possibilities of all the personalities are kept up in the air until the end. Upson reminds me of Dorothy L. Sayers as much as Josephine Tey in that death and the deliberate cause of death are portrayed as universals, a trap of fate that is something that most of us, in the right circumstances, could fall in to, or justify.
A pacier work than its predecessor, Angel with Two Faces nonetheless takes the time to flesh out the character of Josephine Tey. We expect Byron perhaps rather than Tennyson in our crime fiction but Upson makes great use of the conceits of mirrors and distance in 'The Lady of Shallot'. The real Tey writes about the distance of character, of missed or confused or adopted or lost identities, from Betty in The Franchise Affair, through Brat Farrar in the novel of the same name, to the tortured Richard III of The Daughter of Time. Tey's world also pointedly deals with the cusp of things, the moment of change. Livery stables sit opposite new car garages for example. Tey the character is also on the cusp, of different kinds of literary success, of different lives in London or with her father in Inverness, of the possibility of love for Archie with the wrapping up of her love and grief for late fiance Jack. The inevitable sense of personal confusion, the understandable hesitation, are aptly held off with mirrors as the character Tey weaves words and fails to look properly through the window. I am intrigued as to how Upson will continue to build on Tey, but this installment comes highly recommended (as is Brat Farrar is you haven't read it).
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The links in the text are to Amazon, currently cheaper than The Book Depository for UK buyers for the hardback Angel with Two Faces. The Book Depository link is here. Only the hardback is out at the moment but the paperback can be preordered on Amazon here.
I've only read one Josephine Tey book, but it sounds like it might be fun to read the Upsons and Teys together. I'm working on the first book and am looking forward to this one as well!
Posted by: Danielle | July 06, 2009 at 03:01 AM
I really need to read these and do re-reads of all of the Tey books!
Posted by: Kristen M. | July 07, 2009 at 07:28 AM
Really good review - am quite tempted to buy this and read it
Posted by: Vipula Gupta | July 07, 2009 at 03:34 PM
Thank you all for your comments. Hope you enjoy it.
I've just started re-reading Tey's Brat Farrar and I get more impressed with Upson's version of Tey by the page.
Posted by: Juxtabook | July 07, 2009 at 07:07 PM