At the same time I started my
Ngaio
Marsh re-reading plan,
I thought I’d do the same with Josephine Tey, another author
whose work I’ve not re-read since I first discovered it. And again, it
seemed worthwhile to read her books in order of publication, just to see
how her writing develops.

I had a similar experience as I had with Marsh–part way through this
book, I was asking myself just what it had been that pleased me so much
about Tey’s writing. And then, suddenly, Inspector Grant follows his
quarry to Scotland and the book takes wing and turns out to be much more
enjoyable than I’d feared.

This book also has a bearing on my post about imagination: Grant is known
for his intuitive “flair”, which his boss (the intelligent but methodical
Superintendant Barker) recognizes but mistrusts. And sure enough, toward
the end of the book when Grant is agonizing because he’s might have
arrested an innocent man, he tells himself that Barker has no more
imagination than a paving stone.