A very enjoyable and engaging murder mystery. A man is found dead in he queue for a hugely popular musical show in London. The queue was tightly packed and the murder was not discovered until the press of the queue eased enough. Detective Inspector Allen has a considerable problem in his investigation, there are a multitude of potential witnesses and suspects in the queue, however the dead man has no identifying information on his person other than a revolver in his pocket and the unusual knife used to kill him. A suspect is identified and painstaking tracked down and the happily unexpected and wholly satisfactory conclusion reached.
The plot mechanics are superb, the murder is utterly public and credibly invisible, the size and nature of the queue manages to hide the victim and the murder effectively and create a engaging problem for the investigation from the outset. The difficulty in identifying the victim is also a handicap, the dogged and thoughtful investigation slowly pulls together the information. One difficulty is seamlessly replaced with another as the investigation progresses, none are overdone they flow naturally from one to the next and arise from the actions of the vividly realised cast.
Detective Inspector Allen is calm, professional, competent and thankfully works well with an equally competent superior. They tackle the problems of the investigation with energy and professional experience. The leads that are followed are plausible and the process of eliminating them is thoughtful and considered. The rest of the cast are given the opportunity to make an impression on the reader and thankfully the cast from the location in Scotland are allowed to be themselves rather than Highland caricatures.
There are two cameo roles that are star turns in their own right, both are females who happen to also be related to each other. Both have a support role for the suspect which should have boxed them into a particular space, they both effortless transcend the positions and emerge as powerful and striking characters in their own right. It is intriguing that both of these women fill very traditional female roles in the plot and the story, both are given a depth of character and a strength of mind that means they are also distinct persons in their own right. Detective Inspector Allen is interesting, the two women are intriguing.
Josephine Tey has sidestepped a lot of the social attitudes that can interfere with reading popular stories from that time period, there is one glaring exception to this, it is understandable in the context of the time it still is very jarring to a current reader. None of the cast are treated with the outright or amused contempt that could infuse the writing at the time and this adds greatly to the pleasure of the story, it reads a enjoyable historical fiction rather than a historical artifact.
This a a smart sharply told crime story.
