What: Lucy Pym, a renowned psychologist, comes as a guest lecturer to a small college and soon finds herself embroiled in the day-to-day dramas and grievances of the students' lives. Miss Pym Disposes is known as one of the classic mystery novels from Golden Age-era author Josephine Tey, but the "mystery" part doesn't actually kick in until two-thirds of the way through the book. The in-depth character study becomes crucial, however, as the delayed suspense rests all of its significant weight on a single, fateful decision.
Comparable to: Like Ngaio Marsh, Tey is an excellent writer, period. Some of her characters just happen to be murderers. Also, Miss Pym Disposes is a good, early-ish example of psychological suspense --- there's a reason Lucy Pym lectures on psychology.
Representative quote: "Very well, Miss Pym, I give you Dakers. But I remind you that it is their last term, this. And so everything is e-norrrmously exaggerated. Everyone is just the least little bit insane. No, it is true, I promise you."
You might not like it if: Character studies do not interest you.
How to get it: Sorry, Kindle owners, no edition for you (yet). But it is in print, and while you're looking at Tey's books online or on the shelf, you might as well also pick up a copy of Brat Farrar, my favorite of her novels. (We'll get to that later.) Also, you can read a good chunk of the beginning of the book through Google Books.
Connection to previous Wreckage: Ngaio Marsh's Death and the Dancing Footman was Rec. #37.
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