THE MAN IN THE QUEUE

Tey's sly story about a man who's stabbed and dies unnoticed in a London theater queue is a pleasurably archaic blend of the high and low in British decorum. Read in immaculate British by Stephen Thorne, Tey's puzzle, examined and solved by the penetrating Inspector Grant, is just the sort of guilty pleasure to seek out after a grumpy week, an unexpected repair charge, a layoff. Set in the early 1950s, the time and setting, attitudes and prejudices, the very nature of the crime and its detection, couldn't be more soothingly remote from our own. Inspector Grant and his author were overshadowed by the famous historical puzzle they investigated in Audio Partners' first Tey release, THE DAUGHTER OF TIME. Here the subtle intelligence of detective and author is more on display. Sounding as if he might have recorded this in 1953, Thorne proves to be the perfect reader. D.A.W. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine [Published: JUN/JUL 01]