Book review: Miss Blaine’s Prefect And The Golden Samovar, by Olga Wojtas

I’ve never been one for “cosy crime” novels, usually finding them overly whimsical, but my interest was piqued by the idea of one inspired by Muriel Spark’s The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie. Linking a debut novel with an icon of the Scottish literary canon is a bold move, after all, and it’s not immediately obvious how something as spiky and complex as Spark’s work could inspire something more straightforward and comfortable.