Review: Brat Farrar (1949) – Josephine Tey

Brat Farrar is one of the two mysteries by Josephine Tey that does not feature detective Alan Grant. Written in 1949, it was among the post-war novels — the other two being Daughter of Time and The Franchise Affair — that helped cement Tey’s reputation as one of the best of the Golden Age mystery writers.

Tey first introduces us to the Ashby family having a lively lunch in their home, Latchetts, which has been in the family for generations. The eldest, Simon, is soon to be “of age” and inherit Latchetts, and he is joined at the table by Aunt Bee (who has raised the children since their parents died in a car crash eight years earlier) and his siblings, Eleanor, who teaches horseback riding to children at a nearby school, and the young twins, Ruth and Jane. The scene is a warm, happy one and draws the reader into the book.

But then we meet the orphan Brat Farrar, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Simon. Brat is persuaded by a “friend” of the Ashbys to pose as the long-lost Patrick Ashby, Simon’s twin, who disappeared shortly after his parents’ death and whose body has never been found. Brat quickly insinuates himself into the family, explaining that rather than killing himself, as everyone assumed, he ran away to sea and lived in America until recently. As the older twin, Brat/Patrick will inherit Latchetts, not Simon. One by one, he wins over the Ashby family, leaving only Simon believing he is a fraud.

Tey is such a talented writer that she makes it difficult for the reader to dislike Brat despite his dishonesty. By the time he begins to suspect that Patrick was a victim of murder and not a suicide, we find ourselves firmly on his side. Brat’s dilemma is that by proving that Patrick was murdered, he will expose his own crime and bring further sorrow to the family he has come to love.

Brat Farrar has typical Tey touches: a humorous spoof of overly permissive schools like Summerhill and an exciting horserace, as well as some of her most appealing characters in Aunt Bee and Brat himself. It’s a masterful book from start to finish.

Review: Dancers in Mourning (1937) – Margery Allingham

Dancers in Mourning is a fine mystery with some classic Golden Age touches: a country house setting, a murder among the rich and famous, a small circle of suspects, an upper class sleuth. It is also a great example of the use of misdirection by a mystery author. (To say more about this would give too much away.)

This is eighth book in Margery Allingham’s Albert Campion mystery series. Here, Campion is initially called in to discover the person attempting to sabotage a London show that stars the legendary singer/dancer Jimmy Sutane (who bears a strong resemblance to Fred Astaire, both in appearance and talent). But when the ‘pranks’ played on Sutane escalate to the murder of another dancer in the cast of the show, Campion joins with the police — his old friends Superintendent Oates and Chief Detective Inpector Yeo — to find the murderer.

Unfortunately, Campion becomes too infatuated with Linda Sutane, Jimmy’s wife, to think as clearly as he usually does. Though he eventually comes to the correct conclusion, this is one book in which the police actually arrive at the solution to the case ahead of the detective.

I enjoyed many aspects of Dancers in Mourning, but I was never quite convinced by Campion’s love for Linda. The irony of the final conversation between Campion and Jimmy Sutane was, on the other hand, perfect.  I also missed Campion’s ‘assistant’, Magersfontein Lugg, who appears much too briefly in this book. When Lugg does come on the scene, the book brightens considerably: his interactions with the Sutanes’ neglected daughter Sarah are hilarious and heart-warming, and show Allingham at her best.