A review by shropgirl
Dear Little Corpses by Nicola Upson

4.0

This is the tenth book in the Josephine Tey series of novels by Nicola Upson and I enjoyed this one more than some of the others. 

It is the 1st September 1939 and the mass evacuation of children from London to the safety of the countryside has begun. The author describes well the panic, chaos, the misery and upset that parents and children experience. 

Josephine and her lover Marta are living in Suffolk where the vicar’s wife is organising families in the community to accept an evacuee into their homes. Various commitments mean initially that Josephine and Marta cannot take a child but they agreed to help with the children’s arrival. When two buses arrive instead of the anticipated one there is further chaos and confusion. 

The Herrons, two sisters and their brother have agreed to take Betty but they will not accept Betty’s brother Noah. Josephine and Marta accept the Noah provisionally although they find that he is emotionally disturbed and troubled. 

Upson introduces Margery Allingham into this book and Margery and Josephine have agreed to judge various competitions at the local fete the following day. A local family discover that their daughter has gone missing. Josephine’s friend and police detective Archie Penrose has also come down to Suffolk on his day off work and he initiates the search. He is in the middle of a murder investigation in London where the body of a rent man has been found in a block of flats. 

When it is discovered that there is another missing child, a girl evacuee, hidden secrets within the village begin to emerge. It is obviously that there are several people who have something to hide. 

Nicola Upson writing is excellent, her descriptions of the evacuation in London and in the village was vividly brought to life, the historical aspect being well researched. The despair of the parents of the evacuees and the parents of the missing child was well described and quite emotional. Initially the story begins quite slowly, setting the scene and laying out the beginning of the plot. The pace increases and there is tension which the reader feels as Upson brings the various strands of the plot together to a satisfactory conclusion.