Nine Lessons: A Josephine Tey Mystery

I have no idea why this novel is titled Nine Lessons, but it doesn’t matter – this is a terrific read. The intricately woven plot combines a gruesome murder in a graveyard with a string of rapes of young girls and then adds the consequences of a wartime romance for good measure, with the three elements coming together in 1930s Cambridge. The main storyline follows the efforts of DCI Archie Penrose and his close friend, Josephine Tey, to track down the killer. Sometimes working together, sometimes independently, they struggle to make sense of several baffling clues – a photograph of a country house, a series of ghost stories written twenty years earlier, and the tightly guarded secret that looms over a seemingly unrelated group of university alumni. The sexual assaults add a second layer of suspense, the public’s edginess steadily increasing with each new attack. And in the romantic strand, itself taut and tense, trust and the forgiveness necessary when trust is destroyed propel the narrative. Elegant writing, vivid descriptions of the university town’s much-heralded architecture, and believable characters complete a memorable novel.