Books
Inspector Alan Grant books in order
Looking for Josephine Tey’s Inspector Alan Grant books in order? Look no further!
The hero of Josephine Tey’s crime fighting world, Alan Grant, has all the intuition and tenacity of a perfectly penned sleuth in the 1920s-1950s, but with a remarkable difference – he was one of the first fictional detectives to be employed by Scotland Yard.
With a distain for formulaic fiction, subverting the conventions of the genre and defying expectations, Tey broke almost all the ‘rules’ of crime writing at the time.
The six novels in the series – including The Daughter of Time, which went on to be named the greatest mystery novel of all time – are an education in the art of mystery and a joy to read in their own right.
Here are the Alan Grant books in order.
Josephine Tey’s Inspector Alan Grant books in order:
The Man in the Queue by Josephine Tey
Outside a London theatre a throng of people wait expectantly for the last performance of a popular musical. But as the doors open at last, something spoils all thought of entertainment: a man in the queue is found murdered by the deadly thrust of a stiletto…
A Shilling For Candles by Josephine Tey
Beneath the sea cliffs of the south coast, suicides are a sad but common fact. Yet even the hardened coastguard knows something is wrong when a beautiful young film actress is found lying dead on the beach one morning.
Inspector Grant has to take a more professional attitude: death by suicide, however common, has to have a motive – just like murder…
The Franchise Affair by Josephine Tey
Marion Sharpe and her mother seem an unlikely duo to be found on the wrong side of the law. Quiet and ordinary, they have led a peaceful and unremarkable life at their country home, The Franchise. Unremarkable that is, until the police turn up with a demure young woman on their doorstep. Not only does Betty Kane accuse them of kidnap and abuse, she can back up her claim with a detailed description of the attic room in which she was kept, right down to the crack in its round window.
But there’s something about Betty Kane’s story that doesn’t quite add up. Inspector Alan Grant of Scotland Yard is stumped. And it takes Robert Blair, local solicitor turned amateur detective, to solve the mystery that lies at the heart of The Franchise Affair…
To Love and Be Wise by Josephine Tey
It was rumoured that Hollywood stars would kill for the privilege of being photographed by the good-looking, talented and fashionable portrait photographer Leslie Searle. But what would bring such a gifted figure to the English village backwater of Salcott St Mary? And why – and how – did he disappear?
If a crime had been committed, was it murder, fraud, or simply a macabre practical joke? Inspector Alan Grant determines to uncover the truth.
The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey
Richard III reigned for only two years, and for centuries he was villified as the hunch-backed wicked uncle, murderer of the princes in the Tower. Josephine Tey’s novel The Daughter of Time is an investigation into the real facts behind the last Plantagenet king’s reign, and an attempt to right what many believe to be the terrible injustice done to him by the Tudor dynasty.
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 the Tudors?
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 III really was and who killed the Princes in the Tower.
The Singing Sands by Josephine Tey
On his train back to Scotland for a well-earned rest, Inspector Grant learns that a fellow passenger, one Charles Martin, has been found dead. It looks like a case of misadventure – but Grant is not so sure. Teased by some enigmatic lines of verse that the deceased had apparently scrawled on a newspaper, he follows a trail to the remote Outer Hebrides.
And though it is the end of his holiday, it is also the beginning of an intriguing investigation into the bizarre circumstances shrouding Charles Martin’s death…
There you have it – all Josephine Tey’s Inspector Alan Grant books in order! How many have you read? Let us know in the comments below…
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