Josephine Tey

Josephine Tey is not an easy writer to pigeonhole. All of her books are mysteries, but they vary so much in tone and style that it’s difficult to classify them. Brat Farrar, for example, has little or nothing in common with The Daughter of Time, although both are excellent. As the novelist Robert Barnard said in his essay on the author, “If Ngaio Marsh or Christie had died as young as Tey, we would have had a good idea of what they could have gone on writing. We can guess that Tey would have written several more whodunits, but what she would have written is beyond our guesswork.”.

Aftertaste:
Like Georgette Heyer, Tey’s mysteries frequently display a casual contempt for intelligence and common sense of the lower classes, so if you’re sensitive to that sort of thing consider yourself warned.

Availability:
Everywhere.

Other Recommendations:
The mysteries of Georgette Heyer

Travels With My Aunt, by Graham Greene