REVIEW - ANGEL WITH TWO FACES BY NICOLA UPSON

I had seen Nicola Upson's books on blogs and Two for Sorrow had got wonderful  reviews. This was the one I got to first though and what a wonderful book it turned out to be.  Inspector Archie Penrose invites Josephine Tey to visit him at his ancestral home - nothing to do with work or Scotland Yard - but of course there is a sudden death in very unusual circumstances. To add to the interest the story is set in bleak Cornwall and the description of this part of Britain is absolutely gorgeous.

Harry Pinching dies in very tragic circumstances. Death by drowning in a lake which is supposed to claim a victim every seven years. Harry's parents died in a fire sometime ago and now there is Morwenna Harry's twin left behind with the sole custody of Loveday their youngest sister.  The entire village rallies around Morwenna knowing she is going to have an uphill battle on her hands - but there are so many hidden undercurrrents even at the funeral that you know that nothing is as it seems. The village knows more than it tells and everyone closes ranks against Archie - now considered an outsider and from the Yard which further sets him apart.

Josephine is the absolute outsider and by being merely observant and friendly is able to find out secrets both within and out side the Pinching family - all relevant to not just the death of Harry but also to the deaths of his parents. Harry's death is not suicide as previously imagined but murder and this triggers off another.  The ending is superb, unbelievable and I could not for a moment think whether it was a fantasy playing itself out or whether it was a "real" ending.

The book kept me on tenterhooks throughout and I am definitely looking out for another one before I leave.