The year is 1934, the setting is London and a body is about to be discovered on a train. We may have been here many times before, but Nicola Upson’s An Expert In Murder adds enough to the formula to make for an entertaining diversion.

In the book as in real life, Richard of Bordeaux by popular crime author Josephine Tey, is the smash hit play of 1934 and entering the final week of its 475-show run. The real life Richard made a star of John Gielgud and apparently galvanised British theatre. The fictional ROB is equally successful, but the author, actors, producer and various members of the backstage crew have had quite enough of Richard and are busy cat-fighting their way to the final curtain.

In a train from Inverness on her way to the final performances, Josephine Tey befriends a young fan, but when that fan is killed it soon becomes clear her murder is somehow connected to the play. In time-honoured fashion a procession of characters are shown to have a motive. Will the mystery be solved before the killer strikes again?

If the set-up, red-herrings and revelations of dark secrets are familiar enough, then the mash-up of a small slice of theatrical history with crime fiction staples makes for an enjoyable read. And that would be that except I suspect Nicola Upson is striving for a touch more.

There are attempts at sifting through 30s London life, but the fully realised theatre milieu apart, these never quite come alive. Also problematic is how waves of First World War loss permeate the world of An Expert In Murder. From Josephine Tey whose lover was killed on the Somme, through the fearsome but secretly shellshocked impresario, the victim’s relatives, the dogged-but-emotionally-damaged detective, on to the murderer(s) him/her/themselves – everybody is shaped by horror or grief. This is all very Pat Barker and true to the times, but the novel is borderline Christie pastiche and can’t really bear the weight.

I can’t however fault the depiction of a theatrical world that is both colourful and attractive but also rife with private disappointment, fear and mistrust. Mixing fact and fiction can be a cheap trick, but AEIM wears its derivation from real life pretty lightly. Cameo appearances from Ralph, Alec and Larry are thankfully not shoe-horned into the narrative, although their fictionalised equivalents are present and correct. Better still is the private backstage world – a mix of jealousies, both petty and malign, “shocking” lifestyles and self-consciously larger than life characters.

Despite its wider ambitions, An Expert In Murder is ultimately just an entertaining whodunnit made more enjoyable by the novelty of its setting. For my money good as it is, the novel falls a bit between stalls and could do with either moving firmly into 30s homage territory (a la Gilbert Adair’s The Act of Roger Murgatroyd) or better yet, a good dose of a Patrick Hamilton-esque trawl through London’s nether regions. Despite that, An Expert In Murder is plenty good enough to keep an eye out for the promised sequel.

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