DEAR LITTLE CORPSES (Josephine Tey #10) by Nicola Upson will be published on May 19th 2022 by Faber Faber.
Britain is on the verge war against Germany, and, in anticipation of future German aerial attacks, London is evacuating schoolchildren to the countryside. The evacuation process is hectic, and is it no wonder that things go awry. Author and playwright Josephine Tey is spending time at her cottage in Polstead in the Suffolk countryside when the evacuees arrive—saving the children from one danger but delivering them directly into the hands of another. The town receives far more evacuees than expected, and chaos erupts as the residents scramble to provide accommodations for the homesick children. During the confusion, a local child goes missing. Because the girl's parents believed she was with her grandmother (and vice versa), Annie's disappearance is not discovered until the next day. With time against them, the townspeople work together to find the missing girl. As the bodies of other children unexpectedly turn up, the search for Annie brings to light small town secrets that have been harbored for decades.
After a slow start, the plot of DEAR LITTLE CORPSES accelerates to a breakneck speed when it is discovered that little Annie Ridley is missing. The second half of the novel is full of plot twists, secrets, and heartbreaks. It is decades old secrets that lead to the current tragedy. When those secrets are revealed, the extent of the horrors is finally revealed. This novel is proof that you can never truly know your neighbor—at least, not until you've done some digging in their backyard.
Having just read the previous nine novels in the Josephine Tey series—some of which I enjoyed more than others—I can say that DEAR LITTLE CORPSES is one of my favorites. I really enjoy how Upson combines fact with fiction, and throws in other real life people (including mystery author Margery Allingham and Alfred Hitchcock who both directly and indirectly affect this specific novel). Also, throughout the series, Upson also takes the reader to different areas of Great Britain as Josephine travels about for both business and pleasure.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.