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jazzy_daveJosephine Tey "The Man in the Queue" (Pushkin Vertigo)
On the plus side, the writing is descriptive and sometimes lovely, both of which are surprising in a detective story. For instance, Inspector Grant sees laundry hanging to dry in a poor neighborhood: “Here and there a line of gay, motley child’s clothes danced and ballooned with the breeze in a necklace of coloured laughter.”
The book gets off to a slightly sluggish start, ameliorated by atmospheric descriptions of the rituals and entertainments associated with the process of patiently queuing in the rain in hope of gaining a theatre seat.
On the minus side, it’s rather dated in its social attitudes. Just by seeing the murder weapon, Inspector Grant draws this conclusion: “This was a crime that had been planned with an ingenuity and executed with a subtlety that was foreign to an Englishman’s habit of thought. The very femininity of it proclaimed the Levant, or at the very least one used to Levantine habits of life.”
On the plus side again, it’s a clever and engaging story, if one makes allowances for the ways it’s dated, and it is a colourful depiction of a time and place. Looking up some of the obsolete colloquialisms was part of the fun.
On the plus side, the writing is descriptive and sometimes lovely, both of which are surprising in a detective story. For instance, Inspector Grant sees laundry hanging to dry in a poor neighborhood: “Here and there a line of gay, motley child’s clothes danced and ballooned with the breeze in a necklace of coloured laughter.”
The book gets off to a slightly sluggish start, ameliorated by atmospheric descriptions of the rituals and entertainments associated with the process of patiently queuing in the rain in hope of gaining a theatre seat.
On the minus side, it’s rather dated in its social attitudes. Just by seeing the murder weapon, Inspector Grant draws this conclusion: “This was a crime that had been planned with an ingenuity and executed with a subtlety that was foreign to an Englishman’s habit of thought. The very femininity of it proclaimed the Levant, or at the very least one used to Levantine habits of life.”
On the plus side again, it’s a clever and engaging story, if one makes allowances for the ways it’s dated, and it is a colourful depiction of a time and place. Looking up some of the obsolete colloquialisms was part of the fun.
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