Inspector Alan Grant searches for the identity of a man killed in the line at a theater and for the identity of the killerwhom no one saw. She died in 1952, leaving her entire estate to the National Trust.

I hope that Tey meant for us to pick up on things that Grant doesn't, but I'm not so sure in this particular interest.īut anyhow, she's great, and all of her books are worth reading on their own merits. Reviews aren't verified, but Google checks for and removes fake content when it's identified. About the Author Josephine Tey began writing full-time after the successful publication of her first novel, The Man in the Queue (1929), which introduced Inspector Grant of Scotland Yard. And, to be frank, Tey doesn't do a good job of hiding a major clue which - annoyingly - Grant doesn't seem to pick up! The clue doesn't reveal the killer, but it certainly points an arrow in a general direction. I will say the ending is rather abrupt, in contradistinction to the sometimes languid, well-paced rest of the novel. But Tey’s writing is good enough to make reading it worthwhile. When I reread this one last year, I was bothered by the ethnic slurs and the assumption that the criminal had to be foreign. In 1937 she returned to crime writing with A Shilling for Candles, but it wasnt until after the Second. She began to write full-time after the successful publication of her first novel, The Man in the Queue (1929), which introduced Inspector Grant of Scotland Yard. Her concept of the investigator who often makes mistakes and has to recalibrate is also fantastic, and the novel inadvertently has become a piece of historical writing: it's thoroughly enjoyable to keep reminding oneself that Grant can't just use a mobile phone, or look up a suspect's address in 'the system'. The first two times I read The Man in the Queue (both decades ago), I liked it a lot. Josephine Tey is one of the best-known and best-loved of all crime writers.

A man in the queue is found dead, stabbed with a stiletto, and only Scotland Yard’s Inspector Grant can solve the mystery. As a crowd gathers excitedly to wait for a highly anticipated theatre performance, something transpires to put a damper on their eveningmurder. Tey was a fantastic writer, and her mystery novels are peppered with beautiful set-pieces, elegant descriptions and minor characters sketched with scythe-like precision. The captivating debut of Inspector Grant, one of fiction’s greatest detectives.

The man in the queue by josephine tey