The Singing Sands (Inspector Grant Mysteries)

Rating:
Summary: Fairly good mystery reading
Review: Good story, good characterization good descriptions easy to hold onto difficult to put down.

Rating:
Summary: It may take some time to appreciate
Review: The concept behind Tey's *The Singing Sands* immediately drew me in. A bit of poetry written on a newspaper leads the inspector to solve a crime that only he believes is indeed actually a crime. Yes, very interesting. However, once I started reading I found the pacing a little slow. Grant was far more introspective, more concerned with his own fears, than most mystery protagonists. Which was not, by any means, a bad thing. I just had to adjust my mindset a bit. Once I realized that this was not to be a typical solve it and feel good mystery, I found myself sinking in, slowly. Admittedly, it took me a couple of days after finishing the novel to appreciate it, to find it a satisfying read. But one thing has definitely come from reading *The Singing Sands*--I'm now looking forward to reading more Josephine Tey novels.

Rating:
Summary: Oh What a Wonderful Tey!
Review: This book is definitely my favourite of the Ins. Grant series. It is truly unfortunate that Ms. Tey was taken from us so young. Just think what she would have written! This book was published posthumously after her untimely death. It is as perfect a mystery as you will ever come across. In the book Grant is going on a holiday. On the train that he has taken to go to Scotland to visit friends, a young man is found dead in his room. It truly looked like misadventure, but something about it disturbed Grant and got him searching a trail that took him to the Hebrides, back to London, and to Marseilles. And what actually got him going on this impossible search were a few lines of poetry scrawled on a newspaper that the young victim had had with him before he died. Wonderful story!