Audio book narrated by Sandra Duncan.
Published 19th May 2022 by Faber Books.
From the cover of the book:
It takes a village to bury a child.
1 September, 1939.
As the mass evacuation takes place across Britain, thousands of children leave London for the countryside, but when a little girl vanishes without trace, the reality of separation becomes more desperate and more deadly for those who love her.
In the chaos and uncertainty of war, Josephine struggles with the prospect of change. As a cloud of suspicion falls across the small Suffolk village she has come to love, the conflict becomes personal, and events take a dark and sinister turn.
***********
Josephine Tey is on a visit to her cottage in Polstead, Suffolk, for some time with her lover Marta before they are parted once more - Josephine heading back to Scotland and Marta to glamorous Hollywood to work on an adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca with Alfred Hitchcock. But this is not exactly the romantic sojourn they both envisaged.
The late summer of 1939 finds Britain on the brink of war and the country holds its breath for the announcement from Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain that will confirm their worst fears - that the Great War to end all wars was nothing of the kind. A massive logistical undertaking to evacuate children from London to the relative safety of the countryside has begun, but despite all the forward planning, ferrying a mass of youngsters about the country is proving to be mayhem.
When far more children arrive in Polstead than anticipated, Josephine and Marta cannot refuse to help. They take in a young London lad called Noah, who is distraught after being split up from his younger sister Betty, who is lodging with the very peculiar Herron family nearby. Noah seems to be hiding something too...
On the eve of the village fete, a young girl goes missing. Suspicion lies thick in the air, and some are pointing fingers at the Herron family. It's down to Scotland Yard DCI Archie Penrose to uncover the truth, despite being absorbed in a case of an unusual stabbing in a stairwell in Hoxton - with the help of Josephine, of course.
I am not actually going to say too much about the plot of this one, because spoilers would be involved, but there is no doubt that the themes of this gem delve into human depravity in a way that is very disturbing, with its focus on the fate of small children - as so spectacularly chillingly put in its title. However, as is her forte, Nicola weaves time and place so beautifully into her setting at this very moment in 1939, that I can forgive her for making this, in my opinion, one of the darkest of all the books in this marvellous series.
Suspicion, rumour, guilt, complicity, lost innocence, and twisted notions of protection dominate, and the way Nicola juxtaposes these with love, care, and generosity of spirit is sublime. The fear of change is so poignantly portrayed too, particularly when it comes to Josephine's personal life. Nicola is at the very top of her game in misleading and misdirecting as the search for a missing child throws up far too many suspects for comfort... until the terrible truth clobbers you like a punch to the gut in the final, twist by twist, swathes of the novel. This one hits hard, and I defy you not to weep, like dear old Archie, when the truth is revealed.
Not satisfied with having one crime writer on board in this instalment, I am delighted that Golden Age Queens Tey and Margery Allingham (author of the Albert Campion books) come together in a very enjoyable double-act. They hit it off instantly at the village fete, and their close examination of splendid agricultural produce, closely fought cake tasting, and fancy-dress judging, adds a nice touch of humour to the proceedings before everything goes awry. Lovely that Archie's romantic prospects take a turn in this one as well, with a little twist related to book seven, Nine Lessons.
My revisit to Dear Little Corpses was via the splendid audio book narrated by Sandra Duncan, of course, whose dulcet tones I am addicted to by now. I am very much looking forward to listening to her in Shot With Crimson next, in my build up to the brand new Tey book, The Voices of the Dead!
Dear Little Corpses is available to buy now in hardcover, paperback, ebook and audio formats.
About the author:
Nicola Upson's debut novel, An Expert in Murder, was the first in a series of crime novels whose main character is Josephine Tey, who - along with Agatha Christie - was one of the masters of Britain's Golden Age of crime writing. She was shortlisted for the CWA Historical Dagger in 2018 for Nine Lessons and longlisted in 2021 for The Dead of Winter.
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