ANGEL WITH TWO FACES

In the world of cosies it’s surprising how uncosy life can be.  Nicola Upson won’t thank me for calling this a cosy but it’s a Cornish mystery, set in 1935, in which family secrets are unearthed by a Scotland Yard inspector returned on holiday.  His semi-platonic lady friend (no surprise to readers of the first in this series) is the real-life crime writer Josephine Tey.  In truth, she brings little to the story: she doesn’t do a Miss Marple, she provides no sex interest (well, would she?) and she’s party to one excruciating moment when near-neighbour Daphne du Maurier is dragged in. 

That apart, we have an entertaining, if eventually over-egged, mystery in which interlinked members of both the actual and the extended family, isolated in their village and manorial estate, behave as a novelist might expect they would.  What really happened in that two-page preface – did the horseman kill himself, fall victim to an accident – or was he pushed?  His twin sister looks after their much younger sister, fourteen, pretty and very fey.  Their parents died in a fire.  And as we’re not surprised to learn, practically everyone has a secret.  The friendly local witch advises the inspector not to meddle ...