DETECTIVE STORY aficionados will know the name Josephine Tey, the Scottish author of several popular whodunnits around the 1930s and 1940s, two of which -The Franchise Affair and The Daughter of Time - find their way into many lists of crime classics. She was also a playwright (under the pseudonym Gordon Daviot) whose most successful play, Richard of Bordeaux - the story of Richard III as a romantic - ran for more than a year in the West End in 1933-34 and made famous its leading actor, John Gielgud. She died in 1952.

The debut novelist Nicola Upson has had the intriguing idea of using Tey as the main character in an otherwise traditional, fictional mystery story. It is a dangerous thing to do. But she has clearly studied Tey's life in depth. Just as importantly, she has carefully researched the production of Richard of Bordeaux and the atmosphere of London's theatreland in the early 1930s.

But does An Expert in Murder work as a murder mystery? It is written in old-fashioned, slightly verbose style, and is none the worse for that.

Josephine Tey (also a pseudonym; her real name was Elizabeth Mackintosh) is travelling to London from her Scottish home. The run of Richard of Bordeaux is in its last week. In her railway compartment she engages in conversation with an enthusiastic young fan, Elspeth, whose new suitor is taking her to see the play.

They alight at King's Cross. The girl goes back to the compartment to fetch something she'd forgotten. She is viciously killed. Articles left at the scene of the crime suggest it was a not a random attack. Could Tey have been the intended victim?

Upson does not make the mistake of turning Tey into a Miss Marple-type amateur sleuth. The detective work is carried out by Scotland Yard's Detective Inspector Archie Penrose, an old friend of Tey's late lover, who was killed heroically in the battle of the Somme. Tey, though, is at the centre of the theatrical community, within which lie the clues that will explain the murder.

There follows a satisfying array of backstage jealousies, betrayals, long-buried family secrets, adultery, illegitimacy, and the tragic consequences of the First World War. An important figure in the theatre is murdered by nicotine placed in his whisky. The female lead of the show has entered a shocking lesbian relationship. The boyfriend who invited Elspeth down to London comes under scrutiny.

Throughout, our heroine remains calm and thoughtful, the “real” character mixing with the fictional ones without any strain. I have no idea how accurate is Upson's affectionate portrayal of Josephine Tey. I don't think it matters.

An Expert in Murder by Nicola Upson
Faber, £12.99

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