I’m not a great lover of historical crime novels but I am fascinated by WW2 (no, I don’t know why either) so this book did interest me.
This is the tenth in the Josephine Tey series but I haven’t read any of the others & it really doesn’t matter.

September 1939, London is on the brink of WW2 & the mass evacuation of children is underway. The book is mostly set in the Suffolk village of Polstead where groups of these children are sent.
Amidst this angst & chaos, a little girl goes missing. That is where the war becomes a mere backdrop to this mystery; it is no longer the main focus of the story.

A cleverly constructed plot with a myriad of colourful & interesting characters. The darker underbelly of village life is examined & a satisfying conclusion reached.
I really enjoyed this read & I may well return to more in the series in future, when my tbr mountain has reduced a bit. Recommended.

Nicola Upson"s writing is elegant and lucid. Her quiet calmness allows her to perfectly explore the identity of her characters. When she writes of a period and a location the words are hauntingly beautiful despite the darkness her plot is about to expose. I'm sure Josephine Tey would have admired her skills. I certainly do and think this is her best novel to date. What a lovely surprise to find Margery Allingham lending a hand.

Dear Little Corpses by Nicola Upson
This book is set in 1939 just as the mass evacuations of children from London began. Parents had to take the difficult decision of whether to send their children to the relative safety of the countryside or keep them at their side in London. The village of Polstead on the Suffolk border, where the children from London are sent, is beautifully evoked and the pre-war life of fetes and tea with the vicar is in stark contrast to the events which unfold.
The writer Josephine Tey is used again as the vehicle for the amateur sleuthing alongside her friend Detective Inspector Archie Penrose. We are also introduced to Margery Allingham who lives in the nearby Essex village of Tolleshunt D’Arcy. Upson expertly introduces a wide range characters as she builds up an elaborate and detailed picture of the everyday life of a village. The undercurrents of lies, deceit and buried secrets culminate in disturbing revelations for the village. This is a wonderfully atmospheric historical crime series and this addition (which is the 10th) captures the turbulence of this period and how devastating the separation of child from parent could be.
Many thanks to the author, the publishers and Net Galley for the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

Dear Little Corpses
Such a sad story. Set in England at the start of WW two this book takes us from London to a country village in Suffolk. Centered around the evacuation of children from the city to the countryside this story take us into village life and all that that brings with it. When one of the young evacuees goes missing, the whole village is affected. In the ensuing search for the young girl a lot more is uncovered than anyone expects.
Dear Little Corpses is one in a series of novels featuring the novelist Josephine Tay, but it can be read as a stand-alone, as I discovered. I am however, now looking forward to getting a lot more acquainted with this series and this author. For me this is a four star ⭐️ story. It has a good plot with a few twists along the way and an enjoyable cast of characters that I look forward to discovering more about. Thank you to #NetGalley for a copy of this lovely book.

As I was reading Dear Little Corpses by Nicola Upton it began to dawn on me that it may be a sequel. On further exploration I realised it was book 10 in a series! I was then in a real dilemma regarding what to do, as 20% in I was really enjoy the book, the storyline and the excellent writing. I decided to carry on, and I really enjoyed it. I am absolutely going to go back and read all the previous 9 books in the Josephine Tey mystery series, as I think this is an author I am really going to enjoy.
This particular book does well as a stand alone novel however . Set during 1939 in the Suffolk countryside, it starts with a village having to manage an influx of evacuees, and it was engaging and gripping. I found myself hoping my breath on occasion.
I am very much looking forward to starting at the start of the series. A classic and complex whodunnit that will suit a wide ranging audience.

Nicola Upson's Josephine Tey mysteries are always a riveting and gripping read, books that mixes historical characters with fiction.
This one is darker than usual and some parts were heart wrenching.
The author did an excellent job in describing the atmosphere of the days before the start of WWII, the emotions, the darkness at the center of the story. It's a historical mystery with strong gothic elements and the first pages could work well for the start of a horror.
Josephine and the cast of characters are fleshed out and well developed as usual, the plot is well created and the twists surprised me.
It was an excellent reading experience that kept me hooked.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Although this is number 10 in a series I was still able to read it as a stand-alone. That being said there was much in the book, especially in the first half where I felt that I would have benefited from reading the earlier books in order.
Set in 1939 at the beginning of WWII it evokes a much different England to that of Today. Children are being sent from London to the countryside to escape the threat of German bombing raids but for some, the country holds darker threats.
It is a very well-written book in the more traditional style of British crime writing and red herrings abound to throw the reader off the scent before we arrive at a very emotional ending.
I am sure fans of the Josephine Tey series will enjoy this latest offering and I find myself wanting to read the earlier books.

It’s August 31, 1939, and in London, Neville Chamberlain is still trying to prevent World War 2. Although the storm clouds are gathering over the world, in Polstead, a Suffolk village, there is much excitement in the run up to the annual village fete. Who will win a first prize -will it be a foregone conclusion or will there be a surprise decision?
However, the village is about to have another surprise. A group of evacuees, children and some mums as well, are coming from London to the countryside where it’s hoped they will be safe from it all. But it doesn’t go according to plan. There are too many children and some have arrived without paperwork. Hilary Lampton, the vicar’s wife, must hastily persuade villagers to take them all in.
At Larkspur Cottage, Josephine and her lover and friend, Marta suddenly have to take in a boy called Noah as his sister goes to the Herrons, the slightly shunned family in the big house, Black Bryony. They didn’t want Noah.
Back in London DCI Archie Penrose, is investigating the murder of a rent collector found in a Hoxton block of flat with a pair of scissors in his chest. No one in the block knows anything but the victim wasn’t popular.
At the cottage, Noah is unhappy and nervous and runs away at the sight of a pair of scissors. He arrived without any information and came from Hoxton. Is there a connection?
But soon the evacuees seem to be sorted out and the village fete is a welcome distraction. Josephine is worried about Marta having to return to a film set of one being directed by Alfred Hitchcock and leaving her alone. But in the excitement of the fete, a young child, Annie, goes missing and a search is started with Archie involved. When a rag doll is found in the village pond while it’s being dragged it seems to point to the inevitable. But it’s not Annie’s.
The Herrons, 2 sisters and a brother, are interviewed by Archie after a villager, Winnie Chilver makes insinuations about them and what might be buried in their garden. As a result, both family and village secrets are finally revealed and the owner of the rag doll from the pond is found at last. But Polstead will never be the same again as the country prepares for war.
This is the 10th of Nicola Upson’s Josephine Tey novels and it’s has a much more leisurely pace than the last one I read. Village life is well portrayed with its rivalries and the rumours about the Herrons. It was a good combination of reality and invention. In a small village, everyone often thinks they know everyone else but they don’t know as much as they think they do especially when the villain is unmasked. Setting it against the backdrop of the onset of World War II worked well, especially with its parallels with today. People going about their daily lives while trying not to think about the inevitable.
The creepy Herron family and their ties to the Chilvers, Winnie and Cyril, brother and sister were convincing. A lifetime of bitterness, regret and sadness and cunning was well portrayed. Also, the terror and bewilderment of the evacuees who were suddenly uprooted from their homes and sent off to a strange place with people they didn’t know and with no choice. Also, their parents at home experiencing the heartbreak of their children being sent away and wondering whether they had done the right thing.
The author brought in another real life character, Margery Allingham, the well known writer. I was wondering if there would be more of her in future books However, I felt that the book’s pace was a little slow for me. There is quite a build up in the first half with characters being introduced although the murder seemed to come to nothing, then the search for Annie and then Josephine putting it altogethe. It all felt a little rushed at the end, but it did capture the chaos of the time with evacuees and war preparations.
This is the latest book in a historical crime series featuring the writer Josephine Tey but I wouldn’t recommend starting the series with this one as one of the dater paced earlier ones might be better starts.
My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC.

This is part of a fictional crime series featuring the real-life crime writer Josephine Tey. It's set in WW2 and deals with a child who goes missing during the evacuation of children to the countryside. Having not read any of the series I expected this to be 'cosy crime' but it's not, it really moved me and left me thinking about the story well after I'd finished the last page.

Dear Little Corpses is set in Polstead a sleepy village in Suffolk just before the last War was declared and everything changed forever .Children, Mothers and Babies are being evacuated from London to the countryside and hopefully safety and Polstead is ready but when the Evacuees arrive in the chaos a child goes missing .The descriptions of village life are charming but sad because once war was declared everything will be changed forever. The characters are realistic and mostly likeable and the story is gripping full of old secrets and a twist at the end .I didn't realise that this book was part of a series nor that Josephine Tey was a real Author. I now feel I want to go back and read all the previous books in the series .Thank you to NetGalley for my ARC.

This is just too good a book for me to even attempt to write a review that might come close to doing it justice.

All that I can say is - treat yourself to Dear Little Corpses, it really is an enthralling read.

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this absorbing book

before the announcement of world war 2 there had been discussions of children being evacuated from high risk places to safer places in the country

and so the evacuation began ....

a well thought out plan but things transpire and suddenly a little girl goes missing but 24 hours have elapsed before the call goes out....

my oh my a classic agatha christie novel and i loved it....book 10 in the josephine tey series and its addictive...the LGBT slant was unexpected but didnt affect the overall enjoyment of the book

will be keeping an eye out for more of this authors works

Nicola Upson's latest addition to her historical crime series featuring the Scottish writer Josephine Tey has a very dark heart, set in the Suffolk village of Polstead, where Tey inherited a house from her godmother. Black clouds hang heavy as villagers prepare for the coming war, with the order to carry gas masks at all times and fitting black out curtains, and Tey is living with her friend and lover, Marta, making the most of the time they have together before Marta leaves for America to work with Hitchcock. London is preparing for the terror of war with the mass evacuation of children and mothers with little children to more rural parts of the country. Unsurprisingly, there is heartbreak and anguish amongst parents, having to entrust their precious children to strangers, hoping they have made the right decision.

Vicar's wife Hilary Lampton has made arrangements for Polstead residents to take some of the children, only to find amidst the chaos and confusion, four times more than expected turn up, leaving her to cajole the community into accepting them all. However, one child, Betty is taken in by the Herron family, but they refuse to take in her brother, Noah. Tey takes him in as a short term measure, only to find he is more disturbed and unsettled than she first realises. In the meantime, Scotland Yard DCI Archie Penrose finds himself in charge of a London murder with a victim, a rent collector, he has little sympathy with. At the village fete, Tey finds herself meeting the well known author, Marjery Allingham, and judging the various competitions with her, when it transpires that there is a missing child, and a search for her is organised by Penrose who is temporarily visiting.

There are unexpected twists in a harrowing narrative where the full extent of nightmare horrors hidden with Polstead's community slowly begin to come to light, as the start of the war shakes out other secrets as well. Upson skilfully introduces a wide ranging cast of disparate characters as she builds up a intricate and detailed picture of the the ordinary and everday life of a village. The underlying sinister and menacing undercurrents culminate in revelations that come as a traumatic shock, it seems you can know people all your life and yet not know who they really are. This is a wonderfully atmospheric historical crime series, this addition captures the turbulence of this period, in London with the messy logistics of a mass evacuation and the impact on rural villages. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

I’m a huge Nicola Upson fan already, so had high hopes for this title - and was not disappointed! The calibre of writing, believable in-depth characterisations and superb scene-setting was as excellent as ever. Highly recommend this book - and didn’t predict “whodunnit” till the end! Brilliant.

All the clues are in the first paragraphs of this book! I’m not giving away anything by stating that fact, it’s such a clever concealment of facts, and definitely open to interpretation!!
This book is number ten , set in this Golden Age of crime writing. I love Margery Allingham and Dorothy L. Sayers, but have never read any books by Josephine Tey. Nicola Upson has brilliantly conveyed the the time and place of this novels setting so well, the last hurrah of a peaceful, pre- war setting in Suffolk.
Women and children are being evacuated to the countryside to avoid the threat of the Blitz. September 1939, coach loads arrive in Polstead, and all manage to find billets with local families. The next day, there is a village fete. The combination of visitors, recently arrived children, and a Gypsy encampment, means that when a young girl goes missing, there is a delay in the knowing of this event. Annie , a four year old, was thought by both her Mum and Gran, to be staying with the other, they only realised the truth the next day.
A missing child reveals secrets and tensions that have simmered under these tranquil scenes for decades. There are some marvellous red herrings, and the climax is both shocking and heartbreaking. This story really encompasses those halcyon days of pre- war England. This is the tenth book in this series, and I so want to read the other nine!! So Agatha Christie in its clinical detail, this novel really brings home the desire to keep and protect all children.
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher, Faber and Faber Ltd, for my digital copy in return for my honest, and unbiased review. I will leave reviews to other outlets later, with a five star rating.

This popular series is based on the imagined life of respected Scottish playwright and novelist Josephine Tey whose popular mystery series, published from 1929 to 1952, featured the much loved Inspector Alan Grant of Scotland Yard. Tey was a very private person and little is known about her personal life, so Nicola Upson has imagined her as an amateur sleuth involved in the types of mysteries she loved to write about.

On 1st September 1939 with Great Britain on the brink of declaring war on Germany, Josephine Tey is living in the cottage in the small village of Polstead, Suffolk that she inherited from her godmother. Her friend and lover Marta is staying with her and they are looking forward to spending a quiet week together before Marta leaves for America and Josephine returns home to Inverness.

London is in the throes of evacuating children and women with babies before the onset of the Blitz and Josephine has been asked by the vicar’s wife to help receive the busload of evacuees assigned to the village. Families have already volunteered to take in the twenty children being sent to Polstead, however when the buses from London arrive with four times that many on board, chaos ensues as the welcoming committee tries desperately to find homes for the extra evacuees. Only Noah, a young boy is left with no one to take him, so Josephine reluctantly agrees to temporarily take him home with her until he can be a family can be found to look after him.

The following day is the day of the village fete where Josephine has agreed to be a judge for the various events, culminating in a fancy dress parade. At the start of the parade, the devastating discovery is made that Annie, a four year old girl is missing. Her mother last saw her the afternoon before at the school hall during the chaotic scramble of finding homes for the extra evacuated children. Annie was cross that her mother was taking in more children herself and had gone off in a huff to stay with her grandmother who lived across the road from the school. However, she never arrived there and neither woman knew she was missing until they both arrived at the fancy dress parade without her. Fortunately, Josephine’s friend DCI Archie Penrose of Scotland Yard is staying with friends in the village and is able to calm everyone down and organise a thorough search for the child.

The search for a missing child becomes a catalyst for historical secrets and lies to be uncovered in this small peaceful village, with the plot drawing in more families in both London and Polstead. Upson’s fine writing realistically conveys the heartbreak of mothers sending children away during this stressful time, trusting that they will be cared for and loved by strangers in some unknown place. The chaos of such a huge evacuation of the very young and the potential for children to be lost or misplaced felt particularly poignant with similar evacuations once again taking place in Europe today. The descriptions of village life at that time in history also felt very evocative of that pre-war period in England, just before everything was about to change forever. Upson’s colourful collection of characters are also well drawn from DCI Penrose to the Vicar’s wife, the spinster sisters living with their bachelor brother, the nosy neighbour and the chatty shopkeeper and of course Josephine herself. Although this is the tenth book in the series, it reads well as a stand alone mystery, although after reading it you may then find yourself wanting to devour the whole series.

This is a long way into a series of books and I’m sure all the more enjoyable for those who have followed along from the start. I found the ending great but the first half very slow and so for that reason it wasn’t for me. But I can see if the characters were familiar you might love it.

I came to this title knowing nothing about the author or that this was number 10 in a series. However, this did not stop me from enjoying this read. The subject of a girl going missing was worrying and some details emotional, but overall a good read and I shall be reading more from the series.

The book opens with the burial of some dolls. It's an unusual opening, but it sets the tone for the book. I absolutely loved the story, but I felt unsettled the whole time I was reading it. There's something about Polstead and its inhabitants that never feels quite right - justifiably so, as it turns out.

I think part of the reason I enjoyed the book so much was that its set in countryside I'm familiar with. I live almost on the Sufolk-Essex border and many of the places mentioned are ones I've been to.

I don't know much about Josephine Tey beyond the fact she wrote the book of one of my favourite films 'The Franchise Affair' and although reading this has made me want to find out more about her, at the same time I almost don't want to. Upson's version is so vibrant that I can't help feeling the real thing might be a bit of a let-down.

The story itself is an intriguing one, a girl is missing and the plot centres around the search for her. However, the climax, when it finally comes is wholly unexpected and utterly shocking. By the time I got to the end, my tissue was firmly clenched in my fist and my heart broke for so many of the characters. I've read one other book in this series, a long time ago, and although there were some elements (such as the relationship between Josephine and Marta) where I felt I was missing some of the detail, this in no way detracts from the book and I never felt as though I'd missed out by not having read the earlier books. That said, they have now gone onto my 'TBR' list as this reminded me how much I'd enjoyed the previous one. They feel like they should be cosy crime, but there's nothing cosy about this story. It's dark and awful, but utterly brilliant at the same time. In setting the scene, Upson perfectly captures the charm and sense of community that comes with living in a quiet rural village. However, juxtaposed against this is the underlying threat that comes with it - families who have lived cheek by jowl for years know all each other's secrets and there is the ever present danger that one will be revealed. It is an atmosphere I recognise and it lends a touch of claustrophobia to an otherwise bucolic setting.

The plotting is intricate and clever and everything that is revealed makes perfect sense, even as you shake your head and wonder why you hadn't worked it out before. The characters themselves come to life and I found myself reading quicker and quicker as I went along, willing them towards some kind of resolution. Last month I struggled with motivation to read, but this book has galvanised me again to pick up the next one, if only so that I can get through them quicker, in order to be able to read more of Upson's books!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review the book.

Children all over the country were evacuated on September 1st 1939. One sleepy Suffolk village received more than were expected but place were found for all of them. Then a local girl goes missing.
When she is eventually found it is discovered that a grave mistake has been made and instead of one missing girl there are now two.
People have their own ideas who the suspect is and when a body is dug up the fingers begin to point.