BOOK REVIEW. JOSEPHINE TEY WITH ‘THE MAN IN THE QUEUE

 Book Review.        The Man in the Queue

Author.                   Josephine Tey

Publisher.               Penguin

                               Random House

                               UK

                               First re-published by Arrow in 2011

Copyright.              (C) The National Trust 1929

There are many books out there that can make it too easy to spend time choosing. Wasting time instead of reading. So much information comes my way that I can indeed waste time. Thomas Hardy came easily to hand and now there is this one. I prefer the randomness of the period both have been written in. One thing that cuts through the centuries and decades is the superior classes in the society of the time and those unfortunates that are subordinates.

The success of her first one, The Man in the Queue, published in 1929, enabled Josephine Tey to write full time, but it was not until 1937 that she returned to crime writing and seven more novels followed.

In this story she introduces Inspector Grant of Scotland Yard and his superior Superintendent Barker. It was the age of surnames only and the minions were addressed that way too. Outside of the organisation people were addressed correctly with Mr or Mrs and with forenames sometimes included. That’s all gone once a Prime Minister had declared ‘call me Tony’.

Set in London’s theatre land it could be obvious that a man in a queue is involved. And so he was.

The activity of the investigation moves around the inner part of south-west London and the chase takes our ‘prim and proper’ sleuth all the way to that other kingdom up north! Not only is there an issue of class but also contempt of Scotland shown not by the aristocracy, but my a common ‘as-you-like’ landlady. It’s all about appearances and Josephine Tey does that well.

Names and characters run all the way through this novel and attention is required even to the very end. That’s all the clues I will give as I will never spoil a plot for the reader. 

I loved being transported to a time when life was so different and the use of language intriguing.  I found that both interesting and enjoyable. The plot moves on at a reasonable pace, but of course this is 1929! Unlike modern day murder investigations there is no technology or anyone with incredible stamina but with Inspector Grant we have a thinker. He’s our man that solves it. I could criticise certain things and that is for you to choose to do, or not, when you read it to the very end.