Into this setting comes Lucy Pym, a slightly plump, slightly middle-aged and wholly amiable woman who had to set aside her goal of teaching French after her remaining parent’s death and, much to her great surprise, has written a best seller that has set the world of psychology on its ear. The students’ expectation after four grueling years is to be placed in a good job as a teacher or medical worker. Some of this clearly figures into Miss Pym Disposes, which is set at Leys, a college similar to Anstey, where girls study the physical sciences and seem to spend a lot of time in athletic and terpsichorean pursuits. What I learned this week is that she is one of the least prolific of the classic authors, having only penned eight mystery novels amongst her writings, that she studied at the Anstey Physical Training College and started her professional life as a games mistress, and that she quit her job and nursed her invalid mother until she died and then became a writer while she kept house for her father. I understand from my friends who attended the “Bodies in the Library” conference in London last weekend that a biography of Tey will be published soon, which will hopefully illuminate much about an author who strove throughout her life to be a private person. This week, I head into completely different territory with Miss Pym Disposes, my first novel by Josephine Tey. Last week, it was Stuart Palmer and his caustic schoolmarm Hildegarde Withers in The Puzzle of the Happy Hooligan. And so, this topic has given me a chance to introduce myself to some new/old authors. The only Golden Age title I can think of is Christie’s Cat Among the Pigeons, which I adore, but which is late Christie and a bit problematical. Carlson, Well-Schooled in Murder by Elizabeth George, Shroud for a Nightingale by P.D. Yet, most of my experience with such mystery literature have been of the more modern variety: the glorious Maggie Ryan mysteries by P.M.

I can tell you from personal experience that the plethora of bizarre personalities and the escalating tensions that occur, both naturally and unnaturally, over the course of a school year, certainly lend themselves to potential homicide. As a teacher, I love the idea of murder taking place at school.

The June theme for the Tuesday Night Bloggers is Murder in Academia.

Miss pym disposes