The Complete Inspector Grant includes all five of the Inspector Alan Grant Mysteries by Josephine Tey. Josephine Tey - Inspector Alan Grant Mysteries: The Man in the Queue, A Shilling for Candles, To Love and Be Wise, The Daughter of Time, The Singing Sands. Alan Grant, is clever but very ordinary in many ways, save his dogged determination to find the truth. He is kind and fair and worries about whether he has found the right solutions, persevering when others think it is pointless. He uses his position to ensure that justice prevails, often against the odds.

This is the sixth of Josephine Tey's 'Inspector Grant' novels from the golden age of British detective fiction. Grant meets a celebrity photographer, Leslie Searle, briefly at a party in London. He is later astonished to hear that he has vanished in the sleeply village of Salcott St. Mary, and sets off to investigate.

Josephine Tey wrote ingenious crime novels with utterly believable characters, beautifully crafted dialogues and plots that delight and intrigue the reader. For many, these books are their favourite crime novels, it is just a shame she didn't write more.

One of the greatest detective novels, in which a Scotland Yard inspector is bedridden and embarks on historical research to pass the time. Was King Henry III really a cruel murderer? Or was it political propaganda? Read Tey's final work to find out.

Guest lecturer at a college for women, psychologist Miss Pym, steps in to prevent a young student from cheating during final exams, an act of compassion that precipitates a fatal "accident"--or was it murder?

Bestselling author Josephine Tey's classic final mystery featuring her best-loved character, Inspector Alan Grant, filled with "all the Tey magic and delight" and now featuring a new introduction by Robert Barnard.
On sick leave from Scotland Yard, Inspector Alan Grant is planning a quiet holiday with an old school chum to recover from overwork and mental fatigue. Traveling on the night train to Scotland, however, Grant stumbles upon a dead man and a cryptic poem about "the stones that walk" and "the singing sand," which send him off on a fascinating search into the verse's meaning and the identity of the deceased. Grant needs just this sort of casual inquiry to quiet his jangling nerves, despite his doctor's orders. But what begins as a leisurely pastime eventually turns into a full-blown investigation that leads Grant to discover not only the key to the poem but the truth about a most diabolical murder.

Who really killed the princes in the tower? Was Richard III truly the ogre of legend and Shakespeare's play. - a wicked uncle who murdered his nephews to steal the crown of England? Inspector Alan Grant is not so sure. Laid up in hospital with a broken leg, he becomes obsessed with unravelling this most enduring of historical mysteries. As he investigates with the help of an enthusiastic young American scholar, he unearths long-buried intrigues and comes to a startling conclusion.

Literary sherry parties were not Alan Grant's cup of tea. But when the Scotland Yard Inspector arrived to pick up actress Marta Hallard for dinner, he was struck by the handsome young American photographer, Leslie Searle. Author Lavinia Fitch was sure her guest "must have been something very wicked in ancient Greece," and the art colony at Salcott St. Mary would have agreed. Yet Grant heard nothing more of Searle until the news of his disappearance. Had Searle drowned by accident or could he have been murdered by one of his young women admirers? Was it a possible case of suicide or had the photographer simply vanished for reasons of his own?

Robert Blair was about to knock off from a slow day at his law firm when the phone rang. It was Marion Sharpe on the line, a local woman of quiet disposition who lived with her mother at their decrepit country house, The Franchise. It appeared that she was in some serious trouble: Miss Sharpe and her mother were accused of brutally kidnapping a demure young woman named Betty Kane. Miss Kane's claims seemed highly unlikely, even to Inspector Alan Grant of Scotland Yard, until she described her prison -- the attic room with its cracked window, the kitchen, and the old trunks -- which sounded remarkably like The Franchise. Yet Marion Sharpe claimed the Kane girl had never been there, let alone been held captive for an entire month! Not believing Betty Kane's story, Solicitor Blair takes up the case and, in a dazzling feat of amateur detective work, solves the unbelievable mystery that stumped even Inspector Grant.

"The Man in the Queue" is the first case for Scotland Yard Inspector Grant who was to become the hero of five of Josephine Tey's mystery novels. Josephine Tey was in fact a pseudonym for the Scottish author Elizabeth Mackintosh. It is set in London and is concerned with a mysterious murder that is committed whilst people are queuing in front of the Woofington Theatre to see the final performance of Didn't You Know? starring Ray Marcable, the sensation of the moment. Written over 80 years ago, in 1929, this crime novel has aged amazingly well and is mostly concerned with the personalities and motivations of the characters.

In the packed queue for a popular West End Theatre in 1920s London, the crowd surges forward as the doors open at last... But as they do so, one of their number falls to the ground - a man, stabbed in the back with a stiletto while people jostled for position in the throng. There is nothing in the man's clothes or wallet to identify him, and nothing in his pockets but a revolver... Who is he and who killed him before melting away unseen into the night? Inspector Alan Grant investigates, and soon is engaged in a breathless manhunt that will lead him from London all the way to the Scottish highlands and back, before the mystery is finally resolved in a way that not even he can anticipate.

Josephine Tey re-creates one of history's most famous -- and vicious -- crimes in her classic bestselling novel, a must read for connoisseurs of fiction, now with a new introduction by Robert Barnard

Inspector Alan Grant of Scotland Yard, recuperating from a broken leg, becomes fascinated with a contemporary portrait of Richard III that bears no resemblance to the Wicked Uncle of history. Could such a sensitive, noble face actually belong to one of the world's most heinous villains -- a venomous hunchback who may have killed his brother's children to make his crown secure? Or could Richard have been the victim, turned into a monster by the usurpers of England's throne? Grant determines to find out once and for all, with the help of the British Museum and an American scholar, what kind of man Richard Plantagenet really was and who killed the Little Princes in the Tower.

The Daughter of Time is an ingeniously plotted, beautifully written, and suspenseful tale, a supreme achievement from one of mystery writing's most gifted masters.

'The new crime and espionage series from Penguin Classics makes for a mouth-watering prospect' Daily Telegraph Abducted, beaten, hidden in an attic, a young woman stages an audacious escape. But is her story everything she claims it to be? Fifteen-year-old Betty Kane can recall every detail of the room where she says she was held at the country house known as The Franchise - even the crack in its round window. But her alleged kidnappers, a quiet-living mother and daughter, claim they have never seen her before. Somebody has to be lying. But who? As the case sparks a media frenzy, it is up to unassuming village solicitor Robert Blair to find out.

Voted the top crime novel of all time by the UK Crime Writers’ Association, The Daughter of Time is Josephine Tey’s last and most successful book. Complete and unabridged. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is introduced by writer David Stuart Davies. Inspector Alan Grant is laid up in hospital with a spinal injury and he’s bored. Renowned for his ability to read a face, he passes the time looking at old portraits and one which particularly grabs his attention is of Richard III, the supposed arch villain who killed his own nephews, ‘the princes in the tower’. But Grant doesn’t accept the face in the portrait is the face of a villain so he sets out to investigate what really happened. An unusual premise for a crime novel perhaps, but nevertheless an extremely clever and engrossing one, brilliantly plotted and written with enormous charm and erudition.

In this tale of mystery and suspense, a stranger enters the inner sanctum of the Ashby family posing as Patrick Ashby, the heir to the family's sizable fortune. The stranger, Brat Farrar, has been carefully coached on Patrick's mannerism's, appearance, and every significant detail of Patrick's early life, up to his thirteenth year when he disappeared and was thought to have drowned himself. It seems as if Brat is going to pull off this most incredible deception until old secrets emerge that jeopardize the imposter's plan and his life. Culminating in a final terrible moment when all is revealed, Brat Farrar is a precarious adventure that grips the reader early and firmly and then holds on until the explosive conclusion.

A stranger enters the Ashby family home posing as Patrick Ashby, the heir to the family's sizeable fortune. The stranger, Brat Farrar, has been carefully coached on Patrick's mannerisms, appearance and every significant detail of Patrick's early life, up to his thirteenth year when he disappeared and was thought to have drowned himself. It seems as if Brat is going to pull off this most incredible deception - until old secrets emerge that threaten to jeopardise the imposter's plan and his very life...

Miss Lucy Pym, a popular English psychologist, is guest lecturer at a physical training college. The year's term is nearly over, and Miss Pym -- inquisitive and observant -- detects a furtiveness in the behavior of one student during a final exam. She prevents the girl from cheating by destroying her crib notes. But Miss Pym's cover-up of one crime precipitates another -- a fatal "accident" that only her psychological theories can prove was really murder.

'A detective story with a very considerable difference. Ingenious, stimulating and very enjoyable' SUNDAY TIMES 'As interesting and enjoyable a book as they will meet in a month of Sundays' OBSERVER Scotland Yard inspector Alan Grant, recovering from a broken leg, becomes fascinated with a contemporary portrait of Richard III, believed to have brutally killed his brother's children - the Princes in the Tower - to make his crown secure. But is the hunchback with such a sensitive, noble face really one of the world's most heinous villains? Or was he the victim of one of the most insidious plots in history? 'One of the best mysteries of all time' NEW YORK TIMES 'Suspense is achieved by unexpected twists and extremely competent storytelling . . . credible and convincing' SPECTATOR

'The most interesting of the great female writers of the Golden Age. This disarmingly low-key tale of a mysterious disappearance is the perfect introduction to her world' VAL MCDERMID 'The definition of a classic, a real cut above. It hasn't aged a day' JOSEPH KNOX When Hollywood-star photographer Leslie Searle disappears from a remote English village, gifted inspector Alan Grant is called in to investigate. But what would bring such a successful individual to the village? And was his vanishing his own doing, or did something eerie occur at the hands of an unsuspected culprit? 'Will leave you desperate to re-read' SARAH HILARY 'Worth reading for its ingenious denouement'TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT

"The most consistent of all series in terms of language control, length, and quality of story." David R. Hill, Director of the Edinburgh Project on Extensive Reading.