A Shilling for Candles (Alan Grant #2) - SPOILER Thread - (Dec 24/Jan 25)

[Susan]

Welcome to our Dec 24/Jan 25 buddy read of A Shilling for Candles The second book in the Alan Grant series was first published in 1936.

Beneath the sea cliffs of the south coast, suicides are a sad but common fact. Yet even the hardened coastguard knows something is wrong when a beautiful young film actress is found lying dead on the beach one morning. Inspector Grant has to take a more professional attitude: death by suicide, however common, has to have a motive - just like murder...

Please feel free to post spoilers in this thread.

[ChrisGA]

This was my first Tey novel, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Grant was a likeable detective, and I liked the way he related to his underlings. Erica was fun as the determined protector. The casual anti-Semitic comments were jarring in these days of political correctness-- especially in context of what was and would be happening to European Jews of the time. A touch of whimsy in the surname Gotobed.

[Jan C]

ChrisGA wrote: "This was my first Tey novel, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Grant was a likeable detective, and I liked the way he related to his underlings. Erica was fun as the determined protector. The casual ant..."

I think Christie and, possibly Sayers, also used the name Gotobed.

[Jackie]

This was a wonderful book; I loved Grant and many of the other characters and my only criticism is the murderer didn't seem believable. She was insane, but nobody noticed until she got arrested?

Erica is such a good character, I would like to see a sequel about her.

I made the mistake of watching the Hitchcock movie Young and Innocent which is supposedly based on this book. It really isn't since it has been changed so much. Erica was completely uninteresting as a character in the movie and at the end there is a scene with actors in blackface which is jarring. So that was disappointing.

[Frances]

I've just finished it and also really enjoyed it right up to the end-I agree, Jackie, the murderer just didn't seem believable and the madness just seemed to come out of left field. I was also unclear about the geography so couldn't see the river route to the murder spot.

I would also have liked to see more about Erica and Tisdall-they both seemed great characters and it felt as if things were left hanging there.

Grant is a really good main character-I like the humanizing touches such as his concern for Tisdall not reappearing after being cleared, and as ChrisGA mentioned his relationships with his staff also show his strength and intelligence.

I know we see Marta in other novels-was she in the first one or is this the first time we meet her chronologically speaking.