On his train journey back to Scotland for a well-earned rest, Inspector Grant learns that a fellow passenger, one Charles Martin, has been found dead. It looks like a case of misadventure - but Grant is not so sure. Teased by some enigmatic lines of verse that the deceased had apparently scrawled on a newspaper, he follows a trail to the remote Outer Hebrides.

And though it is the end of his holiday, it is also the beginning of an intriguing investigation into the bizarre circumstances shrouding Charles Martin's death...

 
I'm loving being part of the Josephine Tey mini-ring at BookCrossing, and this is the latest book I've been offered to read. I'm starting to really love Inspector Grant, and this sounds like an interesting and absorbing murder mystery.

August  6th 2004
Up to page 38

I rarely borrow BookCrossing books, as I have more than enough to read of my own without going looking for new things, but when the mini-Tey ring got underway I just couldn't resist becoming part of it. I love Josephine Tey's style and imagination; she always manages to tell wonderful crime stories but she also injects them with dry humour which is impossible not to love.

So far the book has been a little slow, but enjoyable nevertheless. It seems the groundwork for the upcoming story has been laid in the first two chapters, with Inspector Grant (who always reminds me of my late granddad) taking time away from work to beat his claustrophobia. I'm assuming that we'll find out what caused his phobia, as he uncovers the truth behind the death of a passenger on the train he took to visit with his cousin.

A couple of things have bugged me so far, mainly procedural errors by Grant, that I know are going to be integral to the story, but which seem out of character for this most meticulous of men. First, on discovering a dead body, he not only walks off the train and goes on his way, but takes evidence from the scene. Then, when he realises he has the evidence he doesn't hand it in to the local police...in fact, he looses it! It just seems all wrong, and however his state of mind was at the time of the discovery I'd have hoped his copper's instincts would be so finely honed that they'd be automatic. Semantics, I know! I'm sorry, I can't help nit picking, I just like logic in my fiction.

Other than that Tey's usual humour and flare are in abundance, and I can't wait to see how the story turns out.

August  8th 2004
The End

This book was a little different to the other Tey novels I've read to date, because Inspector Grant of the Yard isn't working an official case but a personal obsession.

While travelling up to Scotland on a sleeper train Grant stumbles across the body of a man identified as a French man called Charles Martin. Instead of moving on and enjoying his fishing trip, designed to help conquer crushing claustrophobia that has begun to plague him, he begins to think more and more about B seven (the unfortunate man's carriage number) and in particular the enigmatic poem scrawled in English on the top of a newspaper Grant mistakenly takes with him from the scene.

Initially I wasn't too keen on the slow, meandering tale but once it got going I found myself totally absorbed and loving getting to know Grant more than in any other book I've read. I found his claustrophobia incredibly interesting to read, especially as he's always come across as such a strong, immovably force. Seeing his weakness made him so much more human, in much the same way the events of Night Watch by Terry Pratchett warmed me to Sam Vimes.

The actual mystery story wasn't as well crafted as previous novels, and seemed to rely quite heavily on passages of exposition and chance to move the story. This was especially true with the ending, which I felt was a bit of a cop out. Not giving away the end I'll just say that instead of a collar Grant gets a letter...it wrapped everything up incredibly neatly, but was an ugly end to a really fantastic novel. I like Tey for her elegance, and it just tarnished my view of her a teeny, tiny bit.

I was relieved to find that the racism that permeated A Shilling For Candles was much less here and that made it much easier reading, not to say there weren't overtones. Tey loves the exotic, and it seems that her views of distant lands are incredibly colonial. In this case seeing Arabs as somehow less-than, than we Brits. It's a little disturbing to see views such as these acceptably put into print relatively recently, but what's worse is that the attitudes still permeate a good portion of British society to this day. Unfortunate, but true.

I loved the humour of this book; the subtle, totally off the wall sentences that take you completely by surprise. I laughed out loud several times when the author threw in something completely out of left field. I think that is the main reason, apart from stylish whodunits, that I come back time and again for more Tey.

I don't think this was her best book by far, but I loved it for introducing me to Grant afresh. I still wish I knew what had brought on his claustrophobe (perhaps he inadvertently got into a serious relationship and was almost married:) ) and why he is so desperate to be single. I'm still annoyed at him for binning the evidence though, as no copper, on leave or not, should have been so clumsy!