Un chelín para velas

Inspector Alan Grant #2

by Josephine Tey, Pablo González-Nuevo (Translator)

En una playa aislada cerca del pequeño pueblo de Westover, el cuerpo sin vida de Christine Clay, famosa actriz británica, aparece en la orilla al amanecer. El encantador Inspector Alan Grant, de Scotland Yard, se pone a investigar de inmediato a los sospechosos: un experto en cotilleos de celebrities, un joven arruinado que pasaba unos días en la casa de campo de Christine, el marido aristócrata de la actriz o su hermano, un tunante que siempre ha vivido del cuento. Grant contará, en este caso, con la ayuda de la intrépida Erica Burgoyne, hija del comisario de policía local y exitosa detective amateur.

Adaptada al cine por Alfred Hitchcock como Inocencia y juventud, Un chelín para velas es un brillante misterio salpicado de psicología, sutil humor y personajes estrafalariamente británicos.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Audiobook, British Literature, Classics, Historical Fiction

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1936

About the author

Josephine Tey was a pseudonym of Elizabeth Mackintosh. Josephine was her mother's first name and Tey the surname of an English Grandmother. As Josephine Tey, she wrote six mystery novels featuring Scotland Yard's Inspector Alan Grant.

The first of these, The Man in the Queue (1929) was published under the pseudonym of Gordon Daviot , whose name also appears on the title page of another of her 1929 novels, Kif; An Unvarnished History. She also used the Daviot by-line for a biography of the 17th century cavalry leader John Graham, which was entitled Claverhouse (1937).

Mackintosh also wrote plays (both one act and full length), some of which were produced during her lifetime, under the pseudonym Gordon Daviot. The district of Daviot, near her home of Inverness in Scotland, was a location her family had vacationed. The name Gordon does not appear in either her family or her history.

Elizabeth Mackintosh came of age during World War I, attending Anstey Physical Training College in Birmingham, England during the years 1915 - 1918. Upon graduation, she became a physical training instructor for eight years. In 1926, her mother died and she returned home to Inverness to care for her invalid father. Busy with household duties, she turned to writing as a diversion, and was successful in creating a second career.

Alfred Hitchcock filmed one of her novels, A Shilling for Candles (1936) as Young and Innocent in 1937 and two other of her novels have been made into films, The Franchise Affair (1948), filmed in 1950, and 'Brat Farrar' (1949), filmed as Paranoiac in 1963. In addition, a number of her works have been dramatised for radio.

Her novel The Daughter of Time (1951) was voted the greatest mystery novel of all time by the Crime Writers' Association in 1990.

Miss Mackintosh never married, and died at the age of 55, in London. A shy woman, she is reported to have been somewhat of a mystery even to her intimate friends. While her death seems to have been a surprise, there is some indication she may have known she was fatally ill for some time prior to her passing.

Reviews

[Bill Kerwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not far from the Channel, near Westover, a woman's body is washed ashore. First thought an accident, then a suicide, it is soon deemed a murder—and a puzzling one, at that. But when the dead woman is identified as Christine Clay, famous British actress and Hollywood star, Inspector Grant's task, already quite a puzzle, becomes an ordeal.

This second Inspector Grant mystery is better than the first, but it would still take more than ten years before Tey would include him in her first masterpiece, The Franchise Affair. Still, this too is a very good book. Unlike her first effort, The Man in the Queue, there are no bravura passages here, for the simple reason that Tey has progressed beyond bravura passages; she writes well all the time, with precision and wit, and without unnecessary display. The elegant and likable inspector is off-stage for much of the action, but his creator has by this time become so adept at tale-telling that the reader scarcely feels his absence.

The primary reasons for the reader's satisfaction are the points of view Tey uses to tell the rest of her story. Gossip maven Jammy Hopkins gives us the celebrity reporter's perspective, but even more interesting is the police superintendent's daughter Erica Burgoyne, a fearless tomboy not only half in love with Grant and but also with Robert Tisdall the prime suspect too! This intelligent young lady does her share of investigating, and her vulnerability—and our fears for her—add a good deal to the suspense.

If you get the chance, watch the 1937 Hitchcock film based on this book: Young and Innocent (U.S. title: The Girl Was Young). Hitchcock and his writers altered a lot of the plot—including eliminating Grant entirely and changing the identity of the murderer--but it is a charming and memorable film nonetheless, one of the best of the director's British period. And it stars, as Erica Burgoyne, the first utterly captivating Hitchcock heroine, the--ah, my queen of Hitchcock trivia!--the charming, forgotten Nova Pilbeam.

[Pam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Don’t go into this expecting Hitchcock’s The Young and Innocent. While watching the film I noticed the credit for this book “based on …. .” The film is a delight; the book is a yawn. They only start a bit alike and have a couple of characters with the same name. Things diverge quickly. It may not be fair, but I expected more.

Tey’s story has many red herrings but they drop by the wayside quickly. The dialog is often over indulgent and not necessary for the plot. Charmless.

[Carol, She's so Novel ꧁꧂ · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5★ Can't make it 5★as the clues weren't there for the reader to solve themselves (although Tey did lead one up the garden path! I do love a good garden path wander!)

Mysterious and charismatic actress Christine Clay is found drowned. Initial evidence points a charming young wastrel that Clay recently befriended - but is Robin Tisdall the guilty party? Or is it someone from the past that Clay has been reinventing?

And she used to tell a different story each time. When someone pointed out that that wasn’t what she had said last time, she said: ‘But that’s so dull! I’ve thought of a much better one.’

I'm glad I read this on my kindle as I was constantly looking up different words & expressions. I now know that rend-me-downs are the same as hand-me-downs. But I'm hoping someone from the Reading the Detectives group can explain the significance of a King's Writ!

This novel was also wittier than the other Tey's I have read;

And Hopkins, seeing that Tisdall was unaware of Grant’s identity, rushed in with glad maliciousness. “That is Scotland Yard,” he said. “Inspector Grant. Never had an unsolved crime to his name.” “I hope you write my obituary,” Grant said. “I hope I do!” the journalist said, with fervor.

Tey also seemed to be exploring the injustices of the class system and racism rather than condoning it.

At a scant 195 pages this was told at a brisk pace. I very much prefer this to some of the bloated modern mysteries.

[Jaline · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this outing, Inspector Grant has his work cut out for him. A famous actress is murdered and the suspect list is long. It becomes even longer after her will is read. And the only clue they have is a button.

Once again, Josephine Tey writes a classically woven whodunit with threads of different colors and lengths loosely throwing menace and mayhem in many different directions. As the story proceeds, those threads are gathered tighter and tighter until a design starts to appear.

This was a very enjoyable read – light, but with sufficient heft to set my detecting urges on a jog. I didn’t solve this one until Inspector Grant made his arrest, but the good news is, I have 4 more tries in this series to get there before he does!

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second Inspector Alan Grant novel, following on from “The Man in the Queue.” The first novel was written in 1929, while this was published in 1937, which is quite a gap. I must admit that, although a lover of Golden Age detective fiction, I have always struggled a little with Tey; although I enjoyed this more than the first book.

The mystery begins with the discovery of a body on a beach, which turns out to be that of a successful, and beautiful, actress, named Christina Clay (although, oddly, nobody seems to recognise her at first). Clay has been staying at a cottage, with a man named Robert Tisdall, whom she seems to have just picked up in London and brought along with her. Obviously, Tisdall seems the most obvious suspect, but Erica Burgoyne, daughter of the Chief Constable, believes he is innocent and sets out to clear his name.

As Grant sets out to try to find a case against Tisdall, there are a good range of other suspects – these include Christina’s aristocratic husband, a jovial songwriter (victim of some unpleasant anti-Semitic remarks by the author), an actress who would like to step into her shoes and a ne’er do well brother named Herbert Gotobed (understandably, Christina changed her original name of Chris Gotobed, which was probably a good career move!). Add to this the fact that a psychic, named Lydia Keats, had foreseen Clay’s death and Grant is plagued by a journalist named ‘Jammy’ Hopkins, and the scene is set for an interesting mystery.

This is less a ‘puzzle’ than most Golden Age mysteries and seems more concerned with motives than clues. Grant is a much more grounded detectives than others of that era, who worries about things going wrong and does not necessarily know everything automatically. However, I just fail to warm to him and find him something of a cold fish. There is humour in the novel though – having finally made an arrest, his sergeant exclaims that the law should be changed. Shocked, Grant asks whether the man is talking about the death penalty, and then finds that his colleague is bemoaning the licensing laws and the fact that the pubs are closed! Overall, I enjoyed this more than the previous novel, but I doubt Tey will ever become one of my favourite authors.

Rated 3.5

[Piyangie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The second book of the Inspector Alan Grant series is my first reading of a Josephine Tey mystery novel. While I have certain reservations about the murder mystery, I can say quite honestly that Josephine Tey possessed good storytelling ability. This remarkable skill is what helped me to navigate my reading through many boring parts towards the end.

The story revolves around the mysterious death of a famous actress which the police later conclude as a murder. The first suspicion is directed at the young man who was staying with her at a remote cottage. With the reading of her will, more suspects surface. Inspector Alan Grant, with meticulous care, carries out the investigation. After chasing through different lines - some that proved dead ends, and occasionally committing judgmental errors, Inspector Grant finally manages to nail the criminal.

The murder mystery was rather disappointing with its far-fetched motive. The characters were men and women of another era for whom I didn't feel any kinship. I liked Inspector Grant, however. I liked the way Tey made him an ordinary man who makes blunders and misjudges situations and not some superhero. That made him human and reachable.

Overall, the novel didn't quite work for me. However, despite the flaws this novel presented, I still want to read more. The character of Inspector Grant and Tey's storytelling make me want to take another chance.

More of my reviews can be found at http://piyangiejay.com/

[Phrynne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Curiously I frequently find that books which have a wide spread of differing opinions, and ratings all over the show, are five star reads for me. This is one of them.

The book begins with the mysterious drowning of a female film star and Inspector Alan Grant is hard pressed to find the murderer. He deals with it in his usual manner, following every possible lead, taking his work very seriously and always open to doubts and possibilities. I very much enjoyed the introduction of Erica Burgoyne, the teenage daughter if the Police Superintendent, who provided a fun contrast to Grant in her take on the crime.

Best of all is the author's beautiful style which I could read all day. Five stars.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I truly enjoyed this mystery, the second in the Inspector Alan Grant series. Jospehine Tey has a great eye for detail and a wonderful turn of phrase. There are some books to be devoured quickly and others to be savored slowly. This one is somewhere in between, plus the due date was looming!

Standout quotes:

"Charm, the most insidious weapon in all the human armory."

"But it's quite right to judge on looks if you know enough. You wouldn't buy a washy chestnut narrow across the eyes, would you?"

"His composure was that of a liner suffering the administration's of a tug." I think this refers to boats, as in a large ship being towed by a small tug boat.

"To prize the stone from a peach." A difficult operation perhaps.

"A shilling for candles. What family row had left such a mark that she should immortalize it in her will?"

[Connie G · Rating 3 out of 5]

Josephine Tey is one of the most famous authors from the Golden Age of crime writing in Great Britain. She published "A Shilling for Candles" in 1936. The plot involves an investigation by Inspector Alan Grant into the drowning of a popular movie star. Was it an accident or a murder?

There were several unusual bequests in the film star's will which drew Inspector Grant's attention when he looked for a motive. One was a large bequest added to the will on the day before the drowning. Another noted bequest was for "a shilling for candles," which effectively cut a relative out of her will and provided the title for the book. Tey threw in lots of red herrings which led to dead ends. A newspaper reporter is also following the story since the victim was famous--and embellishing his stories if his interviews did not pan out well. I enjoyed Tey's writing and her quirky characters.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish I hadn't left getting better acquainted with Josephine Tey's writing for quite so long. In this novel, Tey's second, Inspector Alan Grant investigates the murder of a famous actress, whose death by drowning had been predicted by a celebrity clairvoyant. In her characteristically elegant prose, Tey not only delivers an interesting piece of Golden Age crime fiction, she also explores the concept of celebrity. That Tey's observations on this particular issue still seem fresh today is both a testament to the stength of the writing and to the fact that some things never change.

Overall, this was a fun read. Alan Grant is a thoughtful and engaging detective, who makes mistakes and sometimes misjudges people and situations in a very realistic way. The secondary characters are also interesting and well-drawn, particularly the wonderful Erica Burgoyne. The mystery at the centre of the novel is engaging enough, with multiple red herrings and a satisfactory resolution. However, the novel does contain multiple instances of the casual anti-semitism which is a recurrent feature of pre-WWII British crime fiction. It is jarring and unpleasant to a contemporary reader, but something which I can generally cope with in this genre.

My enjoyment of this novel was increased by it being a buddy read with my friend Jemidar, who correctly identifed the culprit very early on. Once Jemidar picked the murderer, all Inspector Grant had to do was work out how the murder was committed. A solid 3-1/2 to 4 star read.

[Libros Prestados · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entretenidísima novela que si le tuviera que poner una pega sería que es imposible descubrir al asesino, porque aunque la pista falsa (el "red herring") es muy obvia, la autora no tenga absolutamente ninguna de las informaciones clave que podrían ayudarte a averiguar su identidad antes. No me refiero a que esconda las pistas, es que ni siquiera las da.

Aunque eso no importa, porque como toda novela de Josephine Tey es entretenida, divertida e ideal para pasar un buen rato. Aunque es cierto que justo al final hay una parte con un contenido pelín antisemita que puede dejar un regusto amargo. Pero hasta ese momento, un misterio muy bien llevado ideal para el estío.

[Lady Clementina ffinch-ffarowmore · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second book featuring Inspector Allan Grant was a group read with the Reading the Detectives group here. The body of a young woman is found washed up on the beach, and while briefly thought to be a swimming accident, soon enough, some things begin to puzzle the local police and the Yard is called in, Grant leading the investigation. The victim turns out to be Christine Clay, a well known actress who’d been living in a small village for a while to get away from things in London. She doesn’t seem to have any obvious enemies but there is an actress who will step into her shoes once she’s out of the way, a possible lover, and a good-for-nothing brother, who few knew she had—he’s been involved in various suspicious activities, and there was no love lost between the two. Then there is also a penniless young man, Robert Tisdall, who had squandered away his own fortune, and who Chris took pity on and took in, but what motive could he possibly have? But most surprising of all, an astrologer of sorts had predicted nearly a year ago that Christine’s end was near. Grant tracks down and interviews various people connected with Chris—her husband, co-actors, so-called friends, and digs into her past looking for possible suspects and motives, in a sense making it more on the lines of a police procedural. As in the first book, he does start off on the wrong track, acting contrary to his own intuition. He loses his chief suspect who gives him the slip quite easily—Tey seems to suggest that criminals DON’T usually escape Grant which seems a bit odd since the main suspect in book 1 managed to do this too. Grant is no extraordinary Sherlock Holmes or Poirot type detective. He is an ordinary but efficient policeman, reasonably clever pursuing every lead and interpreting what he finds to solve his case. The denouement here was interesting and not as abrupt as in the first book. Another surprise reveal at the end was a bit abrupt though—there was some background for it but not enough for one to guess.

What made this book enjoyable for me was Erica Burgoyne, the sixteen- (in some places in the book seventeen) year old daughter of the Chief Constable who is spunky, clever, and resourceful and plays quite an active role in the investigation, at least part of it—it is Grant who finally solves the case, though. I only just found that this book was the basis for a Hitchcock film where the romance angle between Tisdall and Erica is played up—from the book though, I felt she admired Grant, not Tisdall.

Overall, this one proved to be a far more interesting and enjoyable read for me than the first Inspector Grant book.

[Abigail Bok · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is my second recent Inspector Grant whodunit by Josephine Tey, and I have to confess myself underwhelmed. The prose is pleasant to read, but the characters are not very engaging for me, and Tey cheats a bit on the mystery in my view. I have adored other books by her, notably Brat Farrar, but this series, full of empty Bright Young Things, is not doing it for me. Dorothy Sayers does the BYTs in a much more interesting fashion.

At the center of my sense of hollowness is Inspector Grant himself. He doesn’t appear to have any life beyond detecting, and his presence on the page is therefore a tad bland. He is one of the well-brought-up types who seem essential to British mysteries of this era (published in 1936)—authors of this vintage seem to want to have their cake and eat it too, wallowing in the muck of police work but keeping their protagonist’s nose firmly in the fresh air of an upper-crust atmosphere. And the other characters, with one or two exceptions feel like little more than sketches.

As to the resolution: I did not believe in the protagonist’s sudden descent into madness; I prefer murderers with the courage of their convictions! Or else they need to be bonkers from the start. And the sudden intrusion of motorboats into the story was a cheat, in my view: it would have been easy enough for the author to have made the story lousy with motorboats without giving too much away. Lastly, the title points directly to one character—it is a phrase that has no other possible connection in the story—so not making that character the perpetrator was another cheat.

All in all, it was a pleasant diversion but not ultimately satisfying.

[Hana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Group read with English Mysteries Club, June 2014.

What a joy it is to spend a couple of days with Inspector Grant and Josephine Tey. Grant is the antithesis of the hard-boiled detective. My grandmother would say 'he's a lovely man', a gentle man, a bit of a worrier, someone who instinctively likes people. Grant sees his world and its varied and colorful inhabitants with keen insight and good humor.

Even beyond the pleasure of Grant's company, A Shilling for Candles has such a deliciously likeable cast of characters: the hapless young man who is the first suspect and can't even remember his own name; dear Erica Burgoyne, the chief constable's daughter; 'Jammy' Hopkins, the indefatigable reporter, forever in search of the big scoop; theater types from leading ladies, to dumb blonds and chatty song writers. It's all so very English, very 1954 and a good deal of fun.

There is next to no suspense here, no chills or thrills (except for a few mild frissons on a midnight stake out) and the murderer is found in the end almost by accident. But Josephine Tey is a master of the craft; she draws even the smallest character with care, sketchs an interaction with a few witty lines of dialog, and plants us firmly in a place and time with the most beautiful and economical prose.

[Tristram Shandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

“And Grant had gone out into the warm night with a sigh for human nature – and a shrug for the sigh.”

A Shilling for Candles, Josephine Tey’s second Inspector Alan Grant mystery, will give you quite an assortment of specimens of human nature, running the gamut from the murder victim herself, a determined, open-hearted actress who has risen from working as a factory girl, to her brother Herbert, a devious bigot. In fact, the entire novel swarms with side characters, such as the narrow-minded retired ex-serviceman who discovers the body, the edgy Erica Burgoyne, daughter of a police constable, or the rootless Robert Tisdall, who suddenly finds himself the prime suspect, among a cast of many other people who have benefitted from Christine Clay’s death. It is particularly noteworthy, and engaging, that Alan Grant himself is not a super sleuth like Holmes or Poirot but a man who, despite his experience and talent, sometimes makes grave mistakes, like pinning the murder on the wrong guy and letting him escape into the bargain, or not really wanting to confront the victim’s husband, an influential nobleman, with his suspicions for fear of the consequences, and also takes these shortcomings to heart. Considering that in the first novel, Grant was rather sucked up to by the narrator, this is a development which rather endears the character to the reader.

There are also other enjoyable assets of the novel, like the intricate plot that soon turns out a meander of garden paths, the changing points of view and Tey’s witty style. There is hardly a chance of excursion or humorous situation she can resist. Just take the following example of friendly banter among the enterprising crime reporter Jammy Hopkins and his colleages:

”’What is it, Jammy? Pyorrhoea?’

‘No. He’s practising to be a dictator. You begin with the expression.’

‘No you don’t," said a third. "You begin with the hair.’

‘And an arm movement. Arms are very important. Look at Napoleon. Never been more than a corporal if he hadn’t thought up that arm-on-chest business. Pregnant, you know.’

‘If it's pregnant Jammy is, he’d better have the idea in the office, not here. I don’t think the child’s going to be a pleasant sight.’”

When you remember that the novel was published in 1936, this little altercation is even more subtle a comment than you might have thought at first.
However, most of the novel’s appeal is marred by its ending because the solution of the murder mystery feels like cheating, for three reasons: First of all, the motive is extremely threadbare, which also makes the murderer themselves seem quite unlikely; second, there were absolutely no cues given to the reader – in fact, a cue was meanly withheld –, and last but not least the ending came rather suddenly, leaving you with the impression that Tey was either at her wits’ end or had lost interest in her story altogether. Since a mystery novel stands and falls with its resolution, at least with me, one must say that, for all its qualities, the novel did not really live up to the expectations it rises with its readers.

On a final note, I might just as well add that Alfred Hitchcock used A Shilling for Candles as a blueprint for his film Young and Innocent one year after its publication. Hitchcock, however, simplified the plot a lot, concentrating on one of its side strands, namely – typical of him – the ordeal of Robert Tisdall, who is hunted by the police and tries to prove his innocence with the help of Erica Burgoyne. One of the most memorable scenes from this movie, apart from its ending, is the way the camera captures the flight of the seagulls at the scene of the crime – which shows that Hitchcock really had it in for birds.

[Nancy Oakes · Rating 4 out of 5]

really, it's around a 3.6 rounded up.

This is my second time with this book, and I got much more out of it this time around than the last, which is generally the case with me; I think the huge difference was that this time I also had more insight into the author herself. I have to be honest -- so far my favorite of the rereads has been her The Franchise Affair -- in my very humble opinion, it's among the best of her mysteries and A Shilling for Candles doesn't rate as highly as that one. That doesn't mean it's not good, just less enjoyable for me personally.

Having just recently finished Jennifer Morag Henderson's excellent biography of the author, Josephine Tey: A Life (which I'll be talking about here very shortly), I find myself completely in agreement with her -- the more a Tey reader understands about her life, the easier it is to appreciate and to understand her work. I wish the biography had come out sooner; now I feel like I ought to go back and reread more of Tey's crime novels for better perspective.

The supposed suicide of actress Christine Clay turns out to be a murder in this novel, and a ready-made suspect is on hand, supposedly making things easy for Inspector Grant. However, the suspect flees, and while the suspect is being hunted, Grant finds himself having to examine different lines of inquiry that move him into the shallow world of celebrity, the dead woman's personal history, religious strangeness, and they even take him into the realm of out-there astrology before the truth is at last revealed. And I have to say, I seriously didn't see that ending coming -- a complete surprise.

Getting back to why knowing something of Tey's life helps to put things into better perspective as a reader, I could easily see how much of Tey's experiences had an impact on her character creations. As just one example (without giving anything away), Tey had made lifelong friends among a group of women in the theater world, women she'd come to know in her work as playwright Gordon Daviot. One of these women was Marda Vanne, whose fictional counterpart Marta Hallard turns up in more than one Tey novel as an actress friend of Grant's. As another example, when Christine Clay's will is read, it turns out that she's left money to the National Trust, "for the preservation of the beauty of England." Tey did the same in her will. Plus, there's the central focus on the pitfalls of fame and fortune in this novel that may play off of Tey's own reluctance to be in the public limelight.

Recommended to people who enjoy vintage crime, but do be aware that many of Tey's ideas in this novel do not conform to modern PC sensitivities. Frankly, I don't really give a fig about whether or not a book written in the 1930s conforms to today's standards of "correctness", but I have read reader responses that include complaints about this issue, so you've been warned. Overall -- a good read, not great, but it was fun getting to the end.

[Karl Jorgenson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tey was a marvelous writer, with all the right instincts for scene, detail, character. Her mystery plots are clever, with Inspector Grant using his experience and insight to discover clues, then exploit the clues to identify and trap suspects. Mistakes are made, but they are logical, evidence-driven mistakes, a further testimony to Tey's clever storytelling. The enormous bonus to reading Tey is the vivid description of 1936 Britain. Mussolini is the butt of English jokes, but Hitler is not yet on the radar. English villages are cloistered and the upper class are dilettantes. All things Inspector Grant takes in stride.

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was both thrilled and dismayed to discover that in compiling my seemingly endless list of "books read" I somehow missed one of my most favorite British mystery writers ever-Josephine Tey. Thrilled to have the opportunity to share this outstanding writer & dismayed because, put simply, it meant I had to go back to work on my list:). Nevertheless, I'm delighted to share this great writer with others. It hardly matters which of her books you being with (although I would personally recommend , her view on the historically portrayed but not necessarily accurate King Richard III or her more typical mystery )

But it doesn't matter where you begin-you run the risk of becoming addicted to Tey smooth, deceptively simple brilliance: of writing, characterization and stories.

is no exception. Another of her wonderfully written stories. This is an entry in a series involving her Detective Alan Grant and concerns a murder off a romantically beautiful and dangerous coast of England of a beautiful woman. As always with Tey, an outline of her plot does not being to do just to her handling of it.

Recommended: as always, those who enjoy British cozies and/or outstanding writing, characters, and simple but amazingly well-handled storylines.

[Lyn Elliott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Josephine Tey’s confusion of clues left me behind, and I doubt anyone could guess the outcome of this, the second Alan Grant mystery. Grant himself seems only partly formed here, though it may be that the figure in my memory is one I’ve part invented for myself, with elements of Inspector
Dalgleish in there too.
Tey’s writing is a classic piece of its time and place - England in the early post war years, the class system still very much intact even if a bit frayed around the edges; the casual assumption of racial superiority; the outsider status of Jews and the general strangeness of foreign parts.
That’s where it’s main interest lay for me, not in the rather clunky murder plot.

[Deb Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading the first in Josephine Tey's The Man in the Queue, the first in the Inspector Alan Grant series. Grant as a character attracted my attention, as did Tey's writing, so I happily read this, the second in the Grant series.

Grant remains a rock and a symbol of the pursuit of justice in this story. In fact, he shows his sense of fairness and quest for true justice when he makes a simple mistake.

An entertaining read from beginning to end.

[Julie Durnell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe it's just me, but I had a really difficult time with this Alan Grant book-I needed a character listing because I could not keep everyone straight. The murder plotting was devious and very convoluted, I was way off course! But all in all, Josephine Tey is a master storyteller.

[Tracey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another excellent example of "not your ordinary mystery novel". A body is discovered on a beach, and the immediate assumption of suicide is soon contradicted by the evidence. (I have to say I'm a little impressed that the article found with the body which indicates murder is never mentioned in anything I've read online about the book (and in fact morphed into something else for the film adaptation (1937's Young and Innocent, said to be Hitchcock's personal favorite among his British films); I'm glad to continue to keep the secret.) The most obvious suspect isn't after all so obvious – and turns up missing – and what for about a minute seemed neat and tidy turns out to be a tangled ball of false confessions, astrology, suspects requiring delicate handling, and wardrobe searches. Alan Grant's presence in this book is somewhere between that in The Franchise Affair – peripheral – and the his greater omnipresence in The Man in the Queue - in addition to his there are many points of view, beautifully handled and rewarding, but he is in the forefront here.

The cover, I have to say, is odd. Pamela Patrick created a beautiful set of artwork for the Ballantine editions, and there can be no denying that her severely foreshortened corpse here is extremely well done. It's the sort of tour de force that Andrea Mantegna painted almost just to show he could (only Patrick's subject is prone rather than supine, and divine rather than Divine) – foreshortening is a bear. So as far as technique and visual appeal it's wonderful. Unfortunately, the woman depicted is brunette where Christine Clay was blonde, and while I suppose the tarot cards scattered about are a reference to a prediction that Clay would drown (etc.), all of that was couched in astrology, not the tarot. Still, nit-picking.

The plot is gripping; the characterizations natural; if the solution to the mystery is not necessarily one that can be worked out by the armchair detective, that isn't really the point of the book anyway – the impression is that A Shilling for Candles wasn't written primarily as a puzzle to solve. It was, I think, written more as a psychological exercise, an exploration of personality and the consequences of celebrity and of being involved in a homicide. There is the contrast of the rather extraordinary ordinary girl, Erica, with the glitter and sparkle and hollowness of the celebrities. And Alan Grant is a star, in all the best senses of the word.

Great line: "I'll take my alfred davy she never did."

A word I saw used in a summary of one of Miss Tey's other books used the word "excoriating" and it suits here as well. That reference was in regards to the attitude in To Love and Be Wise toward modern writers; here the recipient of the book's scorn is The Public, that seething mindless mass of neediness. The murder victim, Christine, was a star of the first magnitude, and thus even had it been natural her death is not something that could be quietly mourned in private by those closest to her. Her celebrity and the circumstances of her death break it wide open, making both privacy and quiet impossible. Since I read this, Whitney Houston died, and the constant invasion into her family's lives was appalling, down to disruptions of her teenaged daughter's life and, I believe, publication of photos of the nude corpse (see also Marilyn Monroe). I thought the menace of inexcusable paparazzi and the public appetite that allows for them was a more recent development; I honestly don't know if I'm relieved or saddened that it's always been this way.

This disparagement of the Masses put together with the little I know about Josephine Tey's career as Gordon Daviot, very successful playwright, gives me pause. Much of what I know about this aspect of her life is from the novel which uses her as a character, An Expert in Murder, by Nicola Upson; it was not entirely to my taste, but I don't question the research that went into it (though I take everything with a grain of salt, of course, if for no other reason that that I've also read Daughter of Time). If I don't plan to use the book as source material for anything, I will take the setting described as something like accurate: in the story, Daviot's play Richard of Bordeaux is at its height, and there are people who go to see the play over and over. And over. (In Daughter of Time, it is, disarmingly, mentioned that Alan Grant saw it four times.) They sought out the actors and snapped up souvenirs. While Miss Tey/Mr. Daviot might have escaped most of the throng (though for some reason I think the pseudonym was an open secret), she probably had a fair awareness of what it was like for her players, who had no such anonymity. It's sobering to read the following quote with that in mind; Alan has picked up Champneis, Christine Clay's husband, shortly after the funeral, which despite the precautions they tried to take became a circus:

"Those women. I think the end of our greatness as a race must be very near. We came through the war well, but perhaps the effort was too great and left us – epileptic. Great shocks do, sometimes." He was silent for a moment, evidently seeing it all again in his mind's eye. "I've seen machine guns turned on troops in the open – in China – and rebelled against the slaughter. But I would have seen that sub-human mass of hysteria riddled this morning with more joy than I can describe to you. Not because it was – Chris, but because they made me ashamed of being human, of belonging to the same species."

And I think I'll just let that resonate there without further comment.

Note: I just watched Alfred Hitchcock's Young and Innocent, which was in some ways extraordinary. It was rather good – some decent acting by actors completely unknown to me, not a real clunker in the lot; the story, though, was fascinating. Christine Clay is still dead on the beach, but Robert Tisdall, the accused, is introduced by finding the body, and makes his escape through a truly silly sequence of events. Erica, the Chief Constable's daughter, seems a bit older, I think – to make the built-up romance more palatable, perhaps, and much more initially reluctant due to her father's position. Overall, though, much of what was used was kept intact, and everything else was just gone.

[Tijana]

Zapravo vrlo pristojan detektivski roman iz zlatnog doba krimića, sa simpatičnim inspektorom, širokim spektrom upečatljivo ocrtanih osumnjičenih likova i razrešenjem u kome se izvlači nenajavljeni kec iz rukava. Sreću malo kvari to što je čitava radnja zasnovana na ideji da bi mlada i zdrava glumačka zvezda apdejtovala testament (i to pravno validno) na svakih nedelju-dve, ali okej, ima i čudnijih hobija.

[Lisa (Harmonybites) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Josephine Tey is one of my favorite mystery authors--easily top five. This isn't a favorite book among her works though. Sadly, she only wrote eight. The introduction to the latest editions by Robert Barnard name The Daughter of Time, The Franchise Affair and Brat Farrar as the standouts; I'd add Miss Pym Disposes to that list of her best. A Shilling for Candles is only her second book and her two earliest books are indeed imo her weakest, though I like A Shilling for Candles better than her first mystery featuring Inspector Alan Grant of Scotland Yard, The Man in the Queue. The strength of most Teys, including this one, isn't in a tidily plotted whodunnit with clues giving you a fair chance at the solution and a particularly clever twist. The introduction points particularly to A Shilling for Candles in that regard as an example, saying that Tey was not interested "in that kind of game."

So what are this novel's particular pleasures? Well, her prose for one. Lively, full of wry insights, humor, an apt way with descriptions. Her characters for another, and in this case I definitely thought this cast was more memorable than in her first Grant novel. There is an odious reporter, an eccentric astrologer, egotistical show business people and the delightful Erica Burgoyne, teen detective, who arguably proves better at the business than Inspector Grant. Grant isn't along Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot or even Lord Peter Wimsey lines. He laments that himself at one point that he's "just a hard-working, well-meaning ordinarily intelligent detective." Barnard accuses Tey of anti-Semitism in his introduction, but doesn't cite examples, and I have to wonder if it's he just doesn't get that Grant isn't meant to be a Holmes or Poirot. I don't think we're to take his beliefs as that of the author. He's fallible. It may be that anti-Jewish lines are excised from the later or American editions, or that I have yet to find them in my reread of Tey with 3 more novels to go. Unless I missed it because it's encoded as "Eastern European" in this book. But I find it telling that in the first two books, every time Grant expresses a prejudice and makes assumptions based upon it, he's proven wrong--and the character of Eastern European origin in this book doesn't fit any negative stereotype. It could be I'm giving Tey too much credit for being subtle. Maybe. But I suspect Barnard doesn't give Tey enough credit.

I think what I found most poignant in this book though was the portrait of the murder victim we can only get to know through others--film actress Christine Clay. What emerges is a very sympathetic portrait, a vivid one both of her and the prices of celebrity.

[Damaskcat · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful film star is found dead at the foot of some cliffs not far from the cottage she is renting for a few weeks. Is it suicide or is it murder? Inspector Alan Grant is puzzled. When his chief suspect - the young man who was staying with Christina Clay in the cottage - goes on the run he believes his suspicions are correct but he reckons without the Chief Constable's young daughter, Erica, who doesn't believe Robert Tisdall is guilty and sets out to prove it.

I enjoyed reading this well written crime novel. I liked the characters and thought they were very well drawn - especially Erica who proves herself extremely resourceful. I thought the book was well plotted with plenty of suspects and plenty of clues and red herrings. I didn't work out who the murderer was but when I looked back over the book the clues were there - I'd simply not given them the importance they actually had.

This book is part of the Alan Grant series but the books in this series can be read as standalone novels and read in any order.

[Kirsti · Rating 3 out of 5]

This entertaining mystery was published in Britain in 1936, so it contains a lot of expressions I hadn't heard before or had rarely heard before:

I'll take my alfred davy: I'll swear to it

I'm the original locked casket: I can keep a secret

You're the original camel fly: You're annoying

bags: trousers

charabanc: large bus or wagon used for sightseeing

Why doesn't she turn cartwheels in the Strand?: Why must she make a spectacle of herself?

[Bettie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bettie's Books

[Marisol · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una novela detectivesca publicada en 1936 aunque podría incluirse en la llamada era dorada de este género, no sigue las reglas impuestas por los referentes de este, la escritora era un espíritu libre y le gustaba escribir bajo sus propios términos.

El cuerpo de una joven es encontrado a orilla de la playa 🏖, presuntamente ahogada, no lleva identificaciones 🪪, el personal de policía 👮🏼 que llega al lugar se pregunta quién es, cuando de improviso aparece un hombre, quien corre hacia el cadaver reconociéndola, pero al preguntarle el nombre de la joven, indica que la conoce como Chris, que hace unos días ella le ofreció alojamiento en su chalet, y no sabe más.

Se descubre que su nombre es Christine Clay, una estrella 💫 internacional de películas 🎥, de aquí parte la investigación 🧐 para descubrir quien, como y porque.

Hay multitud de sospechosos, Robert un joven que dilapidó, viajando por el mundo, su herencia y que por azar conoció a Christine quien lo hospedó un par de días antes de su muerte, el marido Lord Edward C. aristócrata, millonario y muy enamorado de su mujer, un hermano esquivo, ilocalizable y del que Christine nunca hablaba, Lidia una especie de psíquica que lee horóscopos y predice cosas, Marta y Judy actrices sin el renombre de la muerta.

El investigador 🕵🏻 es Alan Grant, al parecer muy famoso, recto y sensible, es ayudado ocasional e indirectamente por una adolescente que vive en el campo huérfana de mamá, llamada Erika y que es todo un personaje, si se permite decir.

🎥👠Anécdota: Muchos aspectos del personaje principal Christine Clay parecen hacer referencia a la propia autora, un ser enigmático que casi no le gustaba hablar de sus antecedentes familiares o que los cambiaba de entrevista a entrevista.

🔝✔️Pros: muy bien construido el ambiente multicultural, se siente fuerte la presencia norteamericana y como chocan las identidades de una manera educada, cordial, pero sacando un poco de chispas. Hay ciertos personajes que se llevan la historia, como Erika o Robert, son entrañables cada uno a su manera.

❌‼️Contras: Christine es encontrada en traje de baño, en la orilla de la playa ahogada, la policía indica que fue asesinato, pero nunca indican porque se llega a esta conclusión, mas allá de un botón y las uñas rotas, inclusive el cadaver se incinera pocos días después, el personaje de Alan Grant no se habla mucho de su personalidad o vida privada, lo cual dificulta que pueda haber una empatía hacia el o que podamos diferenciarlo de los demás policías. la resolución es por demás un tanto fantástica a mi gusto.

🎬🎭La escena: Erika la adolescente que investiga por su cuenta y que hace mejor trabajo que Grant, necesita 10 dólares y se lo pide a un anciano que trabaja en su finca, al ser los ahorros de toda su vida, el está renuente a dárselos, por lo que se da una negociación muy graciosa, donde ella piensa muy bien que va a decir cada vez para convencer al anciano de ayudarla, sin sonar sentimental o revelar la verdadera causa de necesitar el dinero.

🤹‍♀️🕯💶Chasco: pensé que el título era importante para la resolución pero más bien era un farol.

📚✍️Cita y pulla a los detectives famosos de la literatura: “Deseó ser una de esas maravillosas criaturas, dotadas de un superinstinto y una capacidad de razonamiento infalibles, que pueblan las páginas de las historias de detectives, y no simplemente un inspector diligente, bienintencionado e infatigable.”

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

DAME AGATHA CHRISTIE AND HER PEERS
From the back cover of this edition (Knut Publication, 2015): "The novel is considered as one of the best detective adventure thriller in 20th century." Those are the exact words. The font of the novel is so small I had to read only in bright, direct daylight. Do I dare trust a single word here given bad grammar and tiny font? This is the last publication from Knut that I'll read. But to the contents...
CAST - 4 stars: A William Potticary (from the 14th century England, specifically Lower Low South Mary Jane Village: your local pot dealer) finds a body on the beach. He alerts Bill Gunter (missing an 'r' after "G", who works at the nearby Coastgaurd Station, or at least hangs around there, as we never find out). I think it was the attraction to the phallic lighthouse, all in all. And then, we never hear from either of them again...or do we? Tey likes to toss in last-page clues, after all. She prides herself on writing against the grain. Probably the most interesting character is Christine Clay, who is dead when the book opens and her REAL name is Christine Gotobed. Gotobed? Maybe it's pronounced Ga-tob'ed. But she changed it to Clay cause she's a movie star. Good choice. She is married to Lord Edward Champneis. Now, Tey tells us that his last name is pronounced "Chins". Tey is messing with us: we'd really like to know how Gotobed is pronounced. Then there is "Captain Somebody". I am pretty sure Captain is really a California rapper and his last name is pronounce Show-me-booty. I have to mention Mr. Jay Harmer, who likes to dress in a 'purple silk dressing gown..." You just know someone named Harmer and dressed like this isn't going to harm anyone, unless via a really bad haircut. (Hey, I didn't write this book.) Another character is Clement Clements, and you can tell Tey really stretches her imagination here. Finally, I'll mention Togare, the Lion Trainer, the love of Christine Clay's life and a person who plays a huge part...no wait, a person who is mentioned once and for no apparent reason. Oh, yea, Inspector Grant. Pronounced "Doorknob"....as in "Dumb as a...." I like Togare though, and the lion. And Erica Burgoyne, whose father is a Constable but he is a smaller doorknob than Grant so it is Erica to do all the running around. She's a very, very smart Nancy Drew. Loved her. (But she may be the killer!) Yea, Tey writes anti-detective books with anti-detective book names. Got it. But you can't beat this cast for odd names and questionable motives and very questionable drug use and even more questionable sexuality, not that any of that is a bad thing. 4 stars: wildly, stupendously absurd, but oh so entertaining.
ATMOSPHERE - 3: Early, Potticary, who "belonged to a generation which did not know swimsuits" says that he has found "...a woman. In a bright green bathing dress [dead]." Tey knows her fashion history! Whoo-Hoo! But I bet Harmer and his purple could teach her a thing or two. Everyone has tea. A lot. But since Tey is such an anti-detective/mystery writer, will there be a creepy cult-like church. YES! Will there be a Tichnor-type case, a mysterious stranger suddenly appearing from Australia with a mysterious identity! YES! The cast is the thing is this book.
PLOT - 3: Christine Clay, famous actress, is drowned in the ocean. She has a will for her estate, and, OF COURSE, writes a codicil the day before she dies, leaving most of her movie-fortune to a man she just picked up a few days before from a corner on the street. His name is Robin Tisdale but he USED to be Robin Shannaway (Get it? Tisdale-Tichnor). Lawyer Erskine swears the codicil is real. But is it. And who is Robin anyway? Oh, and she leaves 'a shilling for candles' to her brother Herbert. Good plot, standard.
INVESTIGATION - 2: The actual murderer SCREAMS his/her identity to Grant and to the reader early in the book. Grant is completely overwhelmed by what this person says, then never bothers to check up on it. Inexplicable. Grant does nothing much but accidentally, finally, comes across a news article and gets it all. By accident. Now, Erica is on the run for much of the novel. She's running around in her car called "Tinny" and working hard. She is DESPERATE to find 1) a coat with a missing button and 2) the last person to see one character who disappears and 3) knows way too much (probably cause she's read her father's (the Constables) files and 4) just happens to pick up a lot of travel books for "Nannie" (in case, maybe, she needs to disappear fast) and 5) is athletic and could have easily drowned Christine...but SAYS she is afraid of water. She runs into a guy named Bill eventually (is it Grunter/Gunter) and he has the best line in the book: "Tramps are queer taste for a girl with a healthy appetite.".
RESOLUTION: 2: Murder solved on about page 40 (of 142). BUT, we don't understand some alibis until this person named Rimnik is smuggled into England as a refugee or something. (Has nothing to do with the plot.) I can't tell you the smuggler's names, but both are men, and Grant notices that both are 'immediately attracted' to each other, then promises not to talk about it! Why, it wasn't Grunter after the phallic lighthouse anyway! And one of the two men is the hot handsome character of the story.
SUMMARY: 2.8. Overall, just weirdly odd. The names are ridiculous, trite, original, and unbelievable, all at the same time. The investigation pointless other than Erica's great impression of Nancy Drew. The murder is solved early, but Tey doesn't write 'detective novels'. But odd lines come fast and furious: "...the fussy [lawyer] Erskine, his composure was like that of a liner suffering the administrations of a tug." Well, I NEVER! But there is a website for that. It's called 'tugnation.com' and oddly goes fine with the publishers name, KNUT. And when Chins (Christine Clay's husband) says of the ladies after they hear of Clay's death: "...I would have seen that mass of hysteria riddled this morning with more joy than I can describe to you. Not because it was Chris, but because they make me ashamed of being human, of belonging to the same species," you might think as I did: "WTF?" Somebody, or maybe the entire cast, is smoked up on Potticarry's weed/product. And finally, this exchange:
"What is it, Jammy. Pyorrhea?"
"No. He's practicing to be a dictator. You begin with the expression"
"No, you don't. You begin with the hair."
Well, yes, at least in America. Or a really bad mustache in Germany. What, exactly, is this novel about anyway? This reminds me so much of the first time I read Raymond Chandler's "Big Sleep:" only after an annotated version did it make sense...or rather, did I realize Chandler didn't mean for it to make sense. And, when all is said and done, is it Tey, alone with a pipe, in the attic?

[Buchdoktor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Als Christine Clay im Badeanzug tot in der Brandung der englischen Kreideküste gefunden wird, muss Inspector Grant von Scotland Yard seine Theaterkarte zurückgeben und zu den Ermittlungen in die Provinz reisen. Grant hasst es, wenn seine Routinen unterbrochen werden. Die Schauspielerin, eine geübte Schwimmerin, stammte aus der Gegend und hatte in den USA Karriere gemacht. Offensichtlich hatte sie bisher unerkannt in einer gemieteten Hütte gelebt, so dass ihr Tod einige Aufregung in der Skandalpresse verursacht. Die Eröffnung von Clays ausführlichem Testament sorgt für Wirbel; denn sie hat neben vielen anderen Begünstigten ihrem Bruder Herbert nur „Einen Schilling für Kerzen“ hinterlassen. Theater-Liebhaber Grant, der selbst aus der Provinz stammt, sieht sich in seinem aktuellen Fall einem Dickicht aus Neid und Tratsch gegenüber, in dem einmal mehr seine Liebenswürdigkeit im Umgang mit Zeugen und lokalen Ermittlern gefragt ist. Vom Journalisten, einer Wahrsagerin, über eine fragwürdige Zufallsbekanntschaft Christines bis zur Nachbarin, die alles sieht, ist hier allerlei geboten.

Grant kann auf die Kenntnisse seines Kollegen Williams setzen, der als Clay-Fan eine unerschöpfliche Quelle zu sein scheint und sich für den verehrten Grant die Finger wund arbeiten würde. Ein an der Leiche gefundener Knopf bereitet den Ermittlern Kopfzerbrechen, weil bisher kein Mantel aufgetaucht ist, an dem der Knopf fehlt. Wundern könnte man sich, dass die burschikose 17-jährige Erica, Tochter des Chief Constable Burgoyne, sich unerschrocken in die Ermittlungen einmischt. Grant scheint inzwischen nach der Methode vorzugehen, dass sich der Fall zügig herumsprechen und sich schon Zeugen finden werden. Im Kontrast zu Grants Liebenswürdigkeit fällt in diesem Band Teys Tendenz zu Stereotypen unangenehm auf. So tritt die Figur eines „armen, unscheinbaren europäischen Juden“ auf, der sofort an körperlichen Merkmalen zu erkennen ist.

Im Vergleich zum 6. Band „Der letzte Zug nach Schottland“, der bereits in Neuausgabe vorliegt, fand ich diesen, in der Schlangengrube Filmindustrie angesiedelten, Band inhaltlich eher trivial, die Verknüpfung der zahlreichen Figuren jedoch komplex.

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Serieninfo
Band 2 von 6
Ausgaben: Original 1936, dt. zuvor unter dem Titel: Die Klippen des Todes, Heyne 1983, 9783453106581