Series has potential

The Man in the Queue by Josephine Tey

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I came across The Man in the Queue on the dust jacket of an old Agatha Christie edition, and thought I should give it a try, the author being a contemporary of the ‘Queen of Crime’ – and the novel being published in 1929.

It is generally well written and enjoyable, at least in its account of times and places, largely post-WW1 London and the Scottish Highlands – which as a Caledonian resident and long-time explorer I found accurately depicted.

I understand there are five Inspector Grant mysteries, and here he emerges rather slowly from the shadows. He has a reputation among his colleagues for ‘flair’ – although Sherlock Holmes sets a high bar in this department.

The story features a victim, Albert Sorrell – as per the title – stabbed and left to die unnoticed, whilst still standing, pressed into a packed theatre queue. Fellow bystanders are quickly exonerated, and a hue-and-cry goes up for a man seen arguing with Sorrell, who turns out to be his erstwhile business associate and flatmate, Gerald Lamont.

The closer Grant gets to his quarry, the more his doubts creep in – and these are amplified upon arrest. Lamont protests his innocence. Grant must return to earlier clues overlooked, despite that his superiors regard Lamont as bang to rights.

To say more will reveal the outcome – but I don’t think it is a spoiler to say that the plot does leave a lot to be desired. There are a couple of great leaps where disbelief must be suspended (such as the murder itself), some improbable coincidences (characters with identical initials), and – more substantially – I can’t recall another whodunit that contains such an extensive red herring. It pads out into a novel what is, on reflection, really a novella.

I guess it can take a few attempts to get the hang of the plotting method, and I shall certainly give the next in the series a go, in the hope of a more satisfying mystery.




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