Book review: The Man in the Queue by Josephine Tey

The fifty-fifth book I read in 2015 was The Man in the Queue, an Inspector Alan Grant novel by Josephine Tey.  The first Tey book I read was sent to me by my friend Leslie, probably her most famous book, Brat Farrar.  Having finished the Lord Peter Wimsey books, I decided to move on to more of Tey's genre.

The Man in the Queue is the first Inspector Alan Grant novel, but I don't think it really matters which order one reads them in.  This isn't his first case, and the narrative introduces him with the implication that he is already a well-known figure.  The murder in question was committed in a line for theater tickets.  Despite being surrounded by witnesses, no one noticed the death or the perpetrator, and no one comes forward to identify the victim.

Despite sharing a setting and milieu, Tey's mysteries and Sayers's are very distinct from one another.  It's difficult to imagine Lord Peter working with Inspector Grant in the way he does with Inspector Parker.  Sayers began writing six years before Tey did, and that has made all the difference: her London has a much more old-fashioned feel than Inspector Grant's city.  In addition, Sayers is writing from the point of view of an aristocratic dilettante, Tey from the perspective of a working (though still independently wealthy) common C.I.D. agent.  Tey allows Grant to be fallible -- to suspect the wrong man, even to make a false arrest -- where Lord Peter is more circumspect.  In the language of the game of Clue, Grant suggests and learns from his mistakes; Lord Peter accuses and wins the game.