Hints of Miss Pym Disposes, Inspector Grant, and maybe The Daughter of Time, since some of the story is based on facts. What I found most interesting was the mention in the Author's Note, that Elizabeth Macintosh (Josephine Tey's real name) was called Gordon Daviot, another of her aliases, by her firends in real life. And that Marda Vanne, an actress in "Richard of Bordeaux," wrote a diary addressed to Gordon Daviot. ( )

I was left feeling somewhat unsatisfied.

Josephine Tey is investigating the notorious Finchley Baby Farmers episode, interviewing people she knew and trying to get an insight into this terrible crime in order to write a fiction book. Suddenly one of the seamstresses at Motley dies horribly and there has to be an investigation, the past and present collide and relationships are messy.

Several of the people involved need to talk better to each other.

It's interesting but somehow I felt like the relationships overshadowed the mystery, I have no issues with the relationships but I felt that the sometimes intruded on the murder mystery in ways that made it more complicated than it really needed to be. ( )

The creepiest but also the best written of the mysteries featuring Josephine Tey as a character. Also, a very good sex scene. ( )

I would actually give this more of a 3.5.
This book was a little hit and miss for me, parts of it I found fascinating, and I enjoyed them a lot. Parts of it were slow, boring and unneeded. I also found one of the parts disturbingly graphic.
I was also a little disappointed that I guessed the ending, I think I would of preferred it if I hadn't been right, and I had been shocked by the ending.
However, I did finish reading this in one day, so that's got to say something good about this novel.
Overall I thought it was okay, but not great. ( )

Whilst the premise was interesting - the baby farming crimes of the early 1900s were so carefully calculated and cruel, I found the plot of this book to be somewhat lacking. The general crime thread was fine, with plenty of intricate weaves and quite a few twists, but the main character - Josephine Tey seemed almost superflous to the plot and it failed to build to a climactic ending. I had also predicted the identity of the murderer (including the "twist"). The characters were in parts interesting, and other parts flat and dull. It felt to me as though the writer were trying to cram too many characters and too much unnecessary plot (Josephine's "relationshop" with Marta for a start) into the story without making it flow particularly coherently. But yes, the main flaw for me was that the closest we got to a climax (when the murderer finally revealed themselves) involved a character that I had no emotional attachment to at all and was in fact a mere accesory to the plot. Seriously, this novel could have been tightened up (and shortened down) into something gripping and interesting, but as it was, it was kinda blah. I also see now that it is part of a series, which may explain why Josephine had to be there at all. She certainly wasn't necessary to the plot, except perhaps as a thread to tie it all together. ( )