Review: The Man in the Queue

The Man in the Queue by Gordon Daviot
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have tried and failed to read Nicola Upton's first Josephine Tey novel, finding the language stilted and not being engaged by the story. As I saw yet another Nicola Upton book available as an ARC on NetGalley I was surprised to find that Josephine Tey was herself a novelist in real life and the Upton books are an homage. Without further ado, I googled the books and for the princely sum of 77p purchased the first book in the series (I think I could have bought the entire collected works for 99p, but I like to write individual reviews and I hate having an unfinished book).

A man is murdered in a queue waiting to see the final London performance of the musical comedy Didn't You Know?, stabbed in the back with a small silver dagger. No-one saw the murder, and there is nothing to identify the victim. Enter Inspector Grant of Scotland Yard, his origins are as yet a mystery although we find out that he is of medium height, slight in build and dapper, but not like a tailor's dummy. Later on I felt there were some hints that he may have aristocratic ancestry given that possessed ancient tweeds and fishing rods (although that may also have been common for the middle classes, I don't know) and his initial expectation of looking down on a stockbroker he meets in Scotland.

I love the idea that in the 1920s a shop assistant would recall who he sold a box of ties to three weeks ago, or that a railway porter would be able to describe all the people who boarded a train - how times have changed.

I have to confess I was completely wrong about the identity of the murderer.

Warning, this book is of its time and therefore there is some casual racism/the British belief that they were superior to the rest of the world. Nothing truly awful but a few throwaway comments like

... the foreigner's rat-like preference of the sewers to the open

and the 48 instances where she refers to a character as "the Levantine", even after Grant knows his name.

Having said that, I did enjoy this novel and I am debating whether to buy each Kindle edition individually since they are mostly only 77p and have lush covers or splash out £1.99 on the Delphi complete works.

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