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Man in the Queue | 
 enlarge | Author: Josephine Tey
Creator: Robert Barnard
Publisher: Touchstone
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
Buy Used: $0.29
You Save: $13.71 (98%)
New (30) Used (59) Collectible (3) from $0.29
Avg. Customer Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 344749
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st Collier Books Ed
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.2 x 0.6
ISBN: 0684815028
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.912
EAN: 9780684815022
ASIN: 0684815028
Publication Date: November 29, 1995
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
The first of the author's novels starring the popular Inspector Alan Grant traces the mysterious slaying of a man waiting to see a London musical, whose neighbors in line insist they saw nothing. Reprint. 10,000 first printing.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
 Will this line ever end?!! March 4, 2008
The basic premise of this 1929 mystery is that a man is murdered in a crowded ticket line to a popular London stage show. The man has no identification, no one saw the crime happen and no one comes forward to claim the body despite the wide spread publicity. Police Inspector Grant (making his debut in this novel) pursues various lines of inquiries, eventually discovering who the man was, where he lived and worked, what his actions of the days before the murder had been and what his plans were for the immediate future. Grant's hard work lead him to the Highlands of Scotland to apprehend his suspect and ultimately bring to light the elusive motive for this crime.
The book was first published in 1929 and that, coupled with the fact that it is definitely a British work, leave the 21st century American reader wondering just what Tey is talking about on many occasions. Tey's descriptions are lovely, the prose at times verges on the poetic but her eloquence does lead to page after page of very little action - not a good thing in a mystery novel. Also to the modern day reader who has undoubtedly read and seen numerous detective stories Inspector Grant is really rather sloppy in his work, even to the point of over looking major clues. The case seems to have an absolutely amazing amount of coincidences involved that lead to various false trails for the Inspector to follow, which grows quite wearisome to the reader if not the detective.
In many ways this novel reminds me of the numerous books that were assigned reading in school. They were 'classics' that 'everyone should read', and like those assigned books THE MAN IN THE QUEUE is lots of work for little payoff. Fans of Tey will probably enjoy it but this really is not a good introduction to her work. Fans of detective stories from the 'Golden Age' should find other works, Christie's, or Sayers or Allingham or....pretty much anything else.
 Up with Tey's very best work! February 28, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
There seem to be various complaints about this one but I have nothing but good things to say about it! I'll confess to being a HUGE Tey fan but there's not a thing wrong in that.
This is a British cosy murder with a great plot and plenty of atmosphere. A man is standing in a theater Queue when he is stabbed in the back by an unknown assailant. This seems very odd to Scotland Yard Inspector Grant since the crime scene was such a public place... but little by little, clues and witnesses begin to emerge.
Before it's all over, Grant has to consider multiple suspects and ends up in a manhunt that takes him to the wilds of an obscure Scottish hamlet -- and he's STILL not done!
For any fan of the genre, this is just a super mystery and a fluid read. Great stuff for rainy Saturday mornings.
Like the Titanic -- smooth sailing -- until ... August 9, 2007
I had mixed feeling about Josephine Tey. I thought "Daughter of Time" was overrated, but I really enjoyed "The Franchise Affair" and "Miss Pym Disposes". So when I came across of copy of "The Man in the Queue" at a bazaar sale, I invested $.50 and gave it a read.
The story starts out with a clever murder. Inspector Grant faced with an unidentified victim and unknown motive begins bit by bit to glean pieces of information. This process is by far the best part of the book. Eventually, he identitifies and tracks down the prime suspect. Despite all the evidence, Grant remains unconvinced of the suspect's guilt and continues his investigations. Then "Deus Ex Machina" (translation: out of left field) comes the solution -- definitely not in the "fair play" category and very disappointing.
Historians and critics of the mystery/detective genre may like "The Man in the Queue". Ordinary readers like me should skip it.
A real mystery? Worth 3.5 stars July 11, 2006
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
While there are mysteries so well written that one wonders if the author is just a great writer using the genre for fun or is developing from mystery writer to great author per se, these possibilities are frustratingly inapplicable here it seems. Tey becomes a very fine writer, but since this is her first novel, it doesn't reflect her later maturity. However, some of her "mystery" novels (I've read 4 others so far) seem more literary than mysteries. She regularly withholds information the reader would need to independently solve the mystery. She is not the only one to do this however--many modern "mystery novelists" do this as well. It's rare to be able to figure out a P.D. James novel's mystery either for example. This is one of the reasons that Agatha is so wonderful--she provides both the fine writing & a fair chance to the reader. So, to my mind, Tey is no Christie. In fact, in this novel, the reader is led down the garden path intentionally so that the author can pull something totally unpredictable out of a hat--a bit maddening to the diehard mystery lover. Also annoying to the American reader are her many (to me obscure) British colloquialisms & expressions, which are not understandable by the context, as well as her occasional use of an "I" narrator out of the blue. Also, the internal ruminations of the inspector (who is personable but a bit less able than one would hope) are sometimes trying. She's also a bit negative about foreigners--including America (p. 222) but that may just be part of the story. Her perspective may either be dated or simply dissimilar--p. 188: "It is indecent to pry too far into even a murderer's soul"--not true for the contemporary US TV show "Criminal Intent." Some reviewers take a character's perspective to be the author's perspective--this is an assumption on their part. Still, despite all, Tey has some wonderful turns of phrase--p. 63: "the waiting room was panelled in oak that extinguished the last valiant ray of light as it fought its way past the old greenish glass of the window-pane. The light died on the window-sill as the last survivor of a charge dies on the enemy parapet, murdered but glorious" & p. 76: "No one wanted a plot tonight. No one had ever wanted one. Quite a large number of the most enthusiastic habitues were unaware that there was such a thing, and few, if any, would have been able to give a lucid account of it. And tonight to insist on wasting time with such irrelevance was folly." The last (to a degree) may be Tey's view of her readers. She's an aesthetic writer IMHO.
good writing, mediocre mystery November 15, 2004
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
Yeah, JT can write okay. The book wasn't boring. But as a mystery, this was a loser. The detective never solves the case, the killer simply confesses at the end. And there is no way a reader could remotely have deduced the outcome. I found it a big letdown after 200 pages of reading. Tey is highly regarded, but it probably isn't on account of this book.
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