She is invited by an old friend from school days – who is now the headmistress of a physical training college for young women – to give a lecture.

She uses her understanding of psychology to understand the people she meets – though whether it’s real psychology or just plain good sense I don’t know. Lucy Pym is a woman in her thirties – she took to read psychology books and having read a lot of them wrote a fierce rebuttal which turned into a book and became a huge bestseller. “There was no doubt that being a little on the plump side kept the lines away if you had to have a face like a scone it was at least comforting that it was a smooth scone.” I very much liked Jospehine Tey’s style in this novel – I have heard some people say the quality of her novels varies – but I enjoyed her observations and little asides such as this. Of course, we know or at least sense that something will occur – and so there is a delicious sense of anticipation – and when ‘the moment’ comes we care about it so much more. For two thirds of the novel, Tey gives us a novel about a woman visiting a girls physical training college – she introduces us to members of the staff and student body with acuity – involving us the reader in the life of this community.

Miss Pym Disposes ticked almost all my mystery novel boxes – the thing I really appreciated is that in this novel Josephine Tey takes her time. I do not like lots of gory details, and I don’t expect a body in the first chapter necessarily – I like an author to trust in their reader’s sense of anticipation. I like a good sense of place, some description to sit alongside the mystery. While I appreciate a fiendishly clever plot and a totally unexpected denouement, I really like to become fully invested in the characters – as I would in any other kind of novel. Miss Pym Disposes looked exactly what I was in the mood for – and I have meant to give Josephine Tey a try for years – so it did seem like the perfect moment and in fact it was.Īs I mentioned in a recent post: The Mystery of the Peacock’s Eye – I like rather a lot from my mysteries. It just happened I finished a book a couple of hours before she had arrived and hadn’t decided what to read next. A friend popped in to see me a couple of weeks ago, returned a book I had loaned her and then produced this one – which she thought I would like.

Miss pym disposes