Inspector Grant must find out who the victim of a stabbing in a theatre queue was to have any hope of finding the murderer.

I didn't really get engrossed in this early example of a police procedural but I would be interested to read more from the author. ( )

Writing style to conveluted for me. ( )

I am a particular fan of strong, female protagonists. This has usually led me to female authors. However, one of the early female mystery writers, [a:Josephine Tey|44023|Josephine Tey|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1193918690p2/44023.jpg], only came to my attention recently when I picked up a pile of The Saint Magazines dating from the 1950s. This monthly pulp magazine, edited by [a:Leslie Charteris|36260|Leslie Charteris|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1328997893p2/36260.jpg], featured short stories written by some of the upcoming and leading lights of the mystery genre. There were many authors I had never heard of and, based on the strength of their short story, I decided to hunt down their other writings. This led me to [a:Craig Rice|263980|Craig Rice|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1301407676p2/263980.jpg] and, subsequently, Tey.

Josephine Tey is a well-loved Scottish author who wrote two stand-alone mysteries, six mystery novels featuring Inspector Alan Grant, and three other novels. Grant’s most distinguishing feature is that he does not “look like a detective”. This affords him plenty of opportunities to observe people and engage them in frank and revealing conversations, all without putting them on their guard: A very useful trait in his trade. It also provides the author an opportunity to make shrewd and, at times, critical observations about people, and the English society of the day.

The Man in the Queue is the first of the Inspector Alan Grant series. This is worth noting in that, at several places in the book, the main character reflects back on previous cases with specific details in such a way as to make me think, “Is there a novel before this one that I missed?” It turns out that Tey does this regularly in her books, giving Grant a depth and breadth by relating aspects of his life we are not made privilege to in any other novel.

The book starts with the murder of a man who is standing in a queue for a very popular theatre show. Despite the crushing crowd, no one saw anything and the clues (including anything to identify the victim) are non-existent. Grant is thus hampered in his investigations. How he begins to weave together what happened from mere wisps of thread is a real treat. Because it is told in the third-person from Grant’s point of view, we learn facts as he learns them and share in his frustrations and decision-making process as to what clues to pursue next.

Set mostly in London in the 1920s, the book is short on drawn-out descriptive details of The City, but takes more time in describing the beautiful country-sides through which Grant travels by train. The latter will resonate pleasantly with those, like me, who have traveled through England by train. A part of the novel is set in a remote area of Scotland and there too, Tey does a great job of describing the area and the people with careful attention to detail but without undue sentiment.

Tey intersperses her writing with colloquialisms and local idioms suitable to the time, in some cases referring to well-known popular culture icons. These turns of phrase may baffle some readers, but these occasional references do not detract in any way from the story or plot and character development.

I enjoyed this book very much. The writing was tight and moved at a fast enough clip so that the detailed exposition of the case did not weigh the reader down. The excellent plot, while appearing complex, had a clean, solid resolution with no cheats. The characters were well-drawn and behaved in a realistic manner.

Sidenote: Josephine Tey’s most well-known book is [b:The Daughter of Time|77661|The Daughter of Time|Josephine Tey|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1307325271s/77661.jpg|3222080], which has Inspector Grant conduct, and solve, a mystery from his hospital bed. ( )

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. 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". Very engaging.

I will say the ending is rather abrupt, in contradistinction to the sometimes languid, well-paced rest of the novel. 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 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.

But anyhow, she's great, and all of her books are worth reading on their own merits. ( )

The case is all wrapped up, everything fits, but Grant has a feeling. The ending is a complete twist.