Snowy Christmas gathering in a castle on Cornish island Mount St. Michel just before the WWII begins. What a great atmosphere!
And characters; from nobility, famous actress, detective to people who may not be who everybody think they are.
And then the murder. Past can sometimes catch the future. Whose secrets are kept and whose reputations are destroyed?

Is in our psyche there is the pressure to make every Christmas unforgetable and a happy one that even murder couldn't get in the way?


Marvellous whodunnit crime novel, I highly recommend it.

This is the ninth in the Josephine Tey series, and whilst you don't need to have read previous books to understand this one it will certainky enhance your reading experience if you have. Although the story takes place at Christmas, and features a famous film star, this is one of the darkest in the series so far. Josephine takes a back seat in this story and Archie Penrose is front and center solving some horrific murders past and present.
If you're a fan of the series, or like a darkly disturbing festive tale, then you'll find plenty to enjoy here. When's the next instalment due? :)
(Would love to see this series adapted for TV as well!)

Thank you to Netgalley and Faber for the opportunity to read the ebook arc.

I really like this series, centred around a fictionalised version of Golden Age crime writer Josephine Tey (real name Elizabeth Mackintosh, although here she's Josephine). The Dead of Winter is the ninth, and a very good addition to the series.

This is the second book in a row I've read with a Cornish setting - funny how that happens. Here, Josephine and her lover Marta are invited by their friend, DCI Archie Penrose, to attend a Christmas gathering - a fundraiser for refugees - at St Michael's Mount, an island off the coast of Cornwall, accessed at low tide via a causeway. As ever, Nicola Upson has woven real historical people into her narrative - here, Hilaria St Aubyn, the owner of the island and a childhood friend of Archie, and a certain *very* famous German-born Hollywood actress who is among the guests.

The story is set in 1938 and the looming threat of Nazism is very much felt - and indeed seen - providing a darker counterbalance to the supposedly festive atmosphere. (Not that festive, as it turns out.) It's set at Christmas, but it hardly turns out to be a season of goodwill - the story opens with a younger Archie, eighteen years earlier, discovering the horrific deaths of a mother and her children on Christmas morning - "the day that stripped the joy from Christmas, or so he thought afterwards". There are more murders to come once the characters arrive at St Michael's Mount, although only one is a mystery - the reader, at least, knows exactly what happened to the other victim from the outset. As the snow falls and the island is cut off from the mainland, though, Archie must uncover who among the assembled guests is a murderer.

The setting is very atmospheric, making great use of the island and its medieval church, and setting it at Christmas, in "the dead of winter" is perfect.

Josephine and Marta, who have now settled into their often long-distance relationship, actually don't have that big a role to play in this one, remaining on the sidelines with Archie taking more of the centre stage.

There's a nice nod to Agatha Christie, with one character reading the newly published 'Hercule Poirot's Christmas'.

I enjoyed this very much, though I'm not sure it's the best in the series, although I did love the setting. The plot is ultimately quite straightforward and there is no mystery about one of the deaths, and it somehow all seemed to be resolved quite quickly, with the famous actress - a fascinating person in real life - perhaps a little underused. I would have liked to know more about what became of some of the characters. Nevertheless an excellent read.

I was slightly worried when I started this book as I had not enjoyed the last book in this series although I had enjoyed all the previous ones. I am very happy to say that this book was a joy to read. The story evokes the time of the year it is set in and the descriptions brought to mind the location brilliantly.
The characters are so real and in each reading are more fleshed out and the situations they find themselves in do not seem contrived but are a true reflection of how people behaved in the olden days.
I am looking forward the next installment again.
A really good read thank you Netgalley, the publisher and of course Nicola Upson.

Set in 1938, Nicola Upson's latest in Scottish author Josephine Tey series echoes Agatha Christie's golden age of crime era, indeed it references her with Hercule Poirot's Christmas in the novel. Instead of the country house, we have a Cornish Castle on St Michael's Mound island, owned by the St Aubyn family, with a party of house guests invited for exclusive Christmas festivities by Hilaria St Aubyn to raise funds for a Jewish Refugees Charity. With the ominous clouds of WW2 hanging heavily in Britain and Europe, the Nazis are pushing famous film star Marlene Dietrich to return to Germany, but she is courageously supporting the Jewish Refugee Charity with a large donation, and accompanied by DCI Archie Penrose, is the star guest at Hilaria's gathering.

They are joined by Josephine and her partner, Marta, Reverend Richard and Angela Hartley, Gerald and Rachel Lancaster, Nazi sympathiser Barbara Penhaligon, Mrs Carmichael, and The Times photographer, Alex Fielding. The weather is atrocious, and there are unprecedented heavy snow blizzards which provide the requisite White Christmas, but ensures that locals and guests on the island are cut off from the mainland with a killer amongst them. There are two murders, one discovered by climbing to the top of the church to St Michael's Chair, a local landmark that symbolises dominance, prayer and judgement, a murder that brings back echoes of one of the most gruesome murder scenes he had ever seen in London at Christmas time in 1920 for Archie. The other murder is one that takes place in the local museum and readers are made aware of who the killer is here.

This is the first in Upson's series that I have read, and I found it a hugely enjoyable, fun and entertaining historical Christmas murder mystery, fantastically atmospheric, with the perfect Cornish location and castle, a locked room created by the dangerous and life threatening snow blizzards and a group of guests where not everyone is as they seem. No festive season is complete without a helping of a murder or two, and this fits the bill wonderfully for those crime readers in search of just such a read, and served with all the tropes of a classic golden age of crime, set in the turbulent times, just prior to WW2. Many thanks to Faber and Faber for an ARC.

I have loved this series from the start but have to confess that this isn't my favourite book in the series. Upson has tackled some tough subjects in the past (baby-farming, rape and sexual assault) and has set her stories in wonderful locations (I particularly remember the one set in the BBC against the coronation broadcast) where the historical evocation has proved as much of a draw as her characterisation of Tey and her wonderfully smooth writing.

This one feels much simpler, drawing on the archetypal Christie Christmas trope - the house-party, a cut-off location, snow and no phones, with murder amongst the guests. I found the crime more predictable than I'd expect with the clues made very obvious from the start, and we are witness to the second murder anyway so that's more a 'how will it get found out' plot.

What lifts it is the 1938 setting and the presence of Marlene Dietrich though both are rather underused. Tey and Marta are present but don't have much to do and with no tensions in their relationship anymore they're a hook with not much function. The writing is, as ever, smooth and involving, and the character vignettes turn all the usual suspects into real people whose lives touch at this specific moment. There are also darker intimations such as the Nazi presence and some quite vicious murders that off-set the cosiness.

This will probably be ideal for December reading as an antidote to too much saccharine but I guess I just expect more from Upson and Tey. With the war on the horizon, I do hope the next installment is grittier.

This is the ninth book in the Josephine Tey series and I have to admit being new to the work of Nicola Upson. A Christmas crime story is something of an English tradition and if you love an Agatha Christie style whodunnit then you’ll want to read this. The period setting and the drama on St Michael’s Mount is beautifully described and the attention to small details certainly captures the pre war 1930s. The key characters of Josephine , Archie and Marta are intelligent and sympathetic characters. The plot is taut and with two simultaneous mysteries the story is controlled and keeps the reader guessing.Yes, a few red herrings are throw in for good measure but the outcome is logical and ultimately tragic. I’ll now be checking out book one in the series and working my way through them. A great detective / crime tale. Perfect Christmas reading or any time of year for that matter . Highly recommended.

The Dead of Winter had me hooked from the start. The author does a great job of creating the feeling of an Agatha Christie style murder mystery, but with a modern edge.

The premise of the story is very standard golden age murder mystery with the group of suspects stuck together at a Christmas house party on an island that is cut off from the mainland during a storm.

There are twists and turns and the author leads the reader down alleys and allows us to make presumptions that are then shattered. I really enjoyed the little nods to the history of the genre - one of the characters is reading Hercule Poirot’s Christmas and there is a comment by a character during the police interviews that she presumes it would be like the “boring middle part of a detective story”!

I’ve never read any Nicola Upsom before this but will have a look for her other books now I have.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for my free copy in return for my honest review.

With more twists than a spiral staircase, this book left me breathless, not wanting it to end. But it did. And the last chapter was as brilliant as the first.

The ninth in the Josephine Tey series, the story takes place during Christmas of 1938 on an isolated island in beautiful Cornwall. The setting itself drips with atmosphere. I (sort of) want to be there!

Various people, including a major celebrity, are invited to a massive castle for Christmas as a fundraiser for wartime aid. This story, laced with murder and secrets, follows the path of each character as Christmas is spent together. And apart. Archie Penrose investigates crimes with some help from Josephine Tey. What they find leaves them cold.

Though there are stories within a story, at no time was it arduous or too much. The balance couldn't be more perfect.

Pay attention to every word...you don't want to miss anything. I just love the vivid and lovely descriptions and cared about characters, many deeply affected by tragedy. Unlike many series, investigations are intelligent. Penrose has heart and soul, too.

Also interesting are the links which coincide with real events and people. Clever title as well.

This book would be especially wonderful to read in winter with a warm drink at hand. Mystery and historical fiction readers will be thrilled with it. Maps! It has maps!

This is my favourite book by Upson to date, which says a lot. Very deserving of five stars.

My sincere thank you to Faber and Faber Ltd. and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this enthralling book in exchange for an honest review. Much appreciated.

This is the ninth Josephine Tey book but I didn’t feel like I couldn’t keep up with the relationships in Josephine’s life but it did make me want to read the books from the beginning. It’s December 1938 and Josephine, her friend Archie Penrose and a group of specially selected guests will celebrate Christmas on St Michael’s Mount, an isolated estate house. The country can almost taste the war it will find itself in within a year, no one feels quite safe and to top it all, a Hollywood celebrity will also be staying in the big house. It’s snowing heavily, there are two strange deaths and suddenly, no one quite knows what to think of each other. There’s definitely a lot of secrets just waiting to be uncovered. As an homage to a golden age mystery, this is right up there. I thoroughly enjoyed it, raced through it and I’ll start the others asap.