This mystery story takes place in an English country gym school. The lessons there emphasise physical activity, medicine and biology and the students all appear, at least at first glance, to all be perfect images of fitness, health and youth. But as young author Miss Lucy Pym discovers when she visits the school as an old favour to old school-chum the headteacher, lurking beneath this rosy surface are much more sinister thoughts among the girls. One day the rosy picture is outwardly ruined by a dreadful accident that takes place in one of the gyms. But as Miss Pym begins to learn more about the curious stresses these young women are under, it becomes apparent that it may not have been an accident at all.
This short novel is quite a remarkable murder mystery. Not least because no murder occurs for at least half the book. This would be quite frustrating to some people, and I must admit that I did check the back cover more than once to assure myself of the plotline one more time. But for all that, I don’t feel that the book loses anything for taking a slow pace, and the careful build up of atmosphere and characters only makes the eventual denoument more suprising. On the subject of characters, I felt that this was the real strength of the book. Any book set in a school environment sets itself the difficult task of creating a busy, populated atmosphere and in this I felt that ‘Miss Pym Disposes’ succeeded. There was only one main character, Miss Pym (although she was in danger of being overshadowed by The Brazilian Nut), but others were gently introduced and each given a simple history.
I enjoyed this book but I could see how others might find it a bit boring or lacking in action for a murder mystery story. On that topic I have to confess I am not very well qualified to argue having not read many other books of that genre. All I would venture to say about it is that the novel is not the story of a serial killer and in my view the environment created suits the crime committed.
A Note about the Author.
Josephine Tey is an alias for Elizabeth Mackintosh also known as George Daviot, who was born in 1896 in Inverness, Scotland. She attended Anstey Physical Training College in Birmingham, a school similar to the one she depicted in ‘Miss Pym Disposes’. She worked for some years as a physical training instructor but gave it up in order to look after her father and be able to write. Very little is know about her private life - she always wrote under pseudonyms and she was known as a recluse. She died in 1952 in London after a long illness.
Bibliography:
Kif, An Unvarnished History (1929), The Man in the Queue (1929), The Expensive Halo (1931), A Shilling for Candles (1936), Miss Pym Disposes (1946), The Franchise Affair (1948), Brat Farrar (1949), To Love and Be Wise(1950), The Daughter of Time (1951), The Singing Sands (1952), The Privateer (1952 - published posthumously).
Suggested Links
Biography of Josephine Tey - a brief biography of the author.
Ex Libris Archives - brief description and links to reviews, including Miss Pym Disposes.
Josephine Tey 1896 - 1952 - short biography and bibliography.
The Daughter of Time - a review of the novel.