Fear in the Sunlight

Starred review from January 7, 2013
British author Upson surpasses herself with her mesmerizing and psychologically complex fourth whodunit featuring real-life mystery writer Josephine Tey (after 2011’s Two for Sorrow). In part one, set in 1954 London, an American detective informs Scotland Yarder Archie Penrose that a suspect who has confessed to the murders of three women on the set of Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window in California has also confessed to three other murders committed 18 years earlier in the resort town of Portmeirion, Wales. At that time, Penrose, the model for Tey’s Inspector Grant, and Tey were in Portmeirion celebrating the writer’s 40th birthday. Also present was Hitchcock, already a legendary director, who hoped to persuade Tey to allow him to adapt one of her works for the screen. The brief prologue’s account of the carnage to come in the sections set in 1936 Wales enables Upson effectively to delay the reader’s gratification and to develop a large cast of fully realized characters. The melancholy tone and pitch-perfect prose add depth to the sinister plot. Agent: Gráinne Fox, Fletcher & Co.

April 1, 2013
In Upson's fourth Josephine Tey mystery, starring the real-life mystery author, the lead character is less sleuth than featured player. To celebrate her fortieth birthday in 1936, Tey, along with her good friend Scotland Yard Chief Inspector Archie Penrose, goes to the fairytale-like Welsh resort of Portmeirion at the same time Alfred Hitchcock and his film company are there. Here Tey meets Alma Reville, Hitch's wife, and agrees to the filming of her novel A Shilling for Candles. But sunny Portmeirion turns dark, even gothic, as the tangle of blood and emotional relationships between characters leads to the murders of two women, one of whom is film star Bella Hutton. Her death is followed by the presumed suicide (interpreted as a confession) of actor Leyton Turnbull. These events are bracketed by scenes from 1945, as the retiring Penrose learns the truth about what happened in 1936 and acknowledges, once again, that Hitchcock is a master of suspense. A deft and agreeably darker addition to the series featuring Tey, who is an underappreciated author in the eyes of Upson.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)