Inspector Alan Grant Series

#1 in the Inspector Alan Grant series. Inspector Alan Grant searches for the identity of a man killed in the line at a theater and for the identity of the killer—whom no one saw. A long line had formed for the standing-room-only section of the Woffington Theatre. London’s favorite musical comedy of the past two years was finishing its run at the end of the week. Suddenly, the line began to move, forming a wedge before the open doors as hopeful theatergoers nudged their way forward. But one man, his head sunk down upon his chest, slowly sank to his knees and then, still more slowly, keeled over on his face. Thinking he had fainted, a spectator moved to help, but recoiled in horror from what lay before him: the man in the queue had a small silver dagger neatly plunged into his back. With the wit and guile that have made Inspector Grant a favorite of mystery fans, the inspector sets about discovering just how a murder occurred among so many witnesses, none of whom saw a thing. 

The second book in the Inspector Alan Grant series. 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, even though the area is notorious for such incidents. However, it soon becomes clear that darker motives were afoot, and potential suspects in the death of Christine Clay stack up at a rapid pace. As the case grows murkier, the man who spent the last week of Clay’s life living with her in a remote cottage goes on the run, and Inspector Alan Grant must race to uncover the truth. A Shilling for Candles was the basis for Alfred Hitchcock's Young and Innocent.

The third book in the Inspector Alan Grant series. Val McDermid described Josephine Tey as the ‘most interesting of the great female writers of the Golden Age’, and this unconventional crime mystery – one of the best loved of Tey’s works – is a brilliant example of what makes her so unique. A town full of colourful characters and an impossible disappearance, all threaded through with Tey’s signature psychological probing: all of these delicious ingredients explain why The Franchise Affair has repeatedly been adapted for film and television, and why the Crime Writers Association named it one of the Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time.

The fourth book in the Inspector Alan Grant series. ‘Now you see it, now you don’t. The old conjurer’s trick of the distracted attention. Ever seen a lady sawn in half, Williams? … There’s a strong aroma of sawn lady about this.’ The incomparable Inspector Alan Grant returns in the latest addition to our enormously popular Josephine Tey series. As well as all the usual delights of Tey’s writing and the Inspector himself, To Love and Be Wise also features one of the most cunning and surprising twists of any of Tey’s novels – making it an absolute must-read for any Golden Age crime aficionado.

The sixth and final book in the Inspector Alan Grant series. One of Tey’s finest novels, The Singing Sands centres on the mysterious death of a young man on a train, and the cryptic poem that gradually reveals the greed and envy behind his demise. "He stumbled up the steps and across the bridge ... great bursts of steam billowed up round him from below, noises clanged and echoed from the dark vault about him. They were all wrong about hell, he thought. Hell wasn’t a nice cosy place where you fried ... Hell was concentrated essence of a winter morning after a sleepless night of self-distaste." Diagnosed with ‘overwork’ and in the grip of debilitating claustrophobia, Inspector Alan Grant takes leave from Scotland Yard and heads for the peaceful home of his cousin Laura, who lives with her family in the Scottish Highlands. As the London mail draws into Inverness, he sees the surly sleeping-car attendant trying to rouse an unresponsive young man. He is compelled, firstly, to point out that the passenger is dead, and secondly to pick up the newspaper that has slipped onto the compartment floor. On it the deceased, who appears to have drunk himself into oblivion, has scrawled an elusive poem about a paradise guarded by ‘singing sand’. Grant is soon fascinated by the hopes and dreams of the dead man with ‘tumbled black hair and ... reckless eyebrows’. And though he has planned to do nothing in Scotland but fish, he cannot help but act on the growing suspicion that a far more sinister story is waiting to be uncovered.

The fifth book in the Inspector Alan Grant series. The Daughter of Time remains Josephine Tey’s most enduringly popular mystery. Can a bed-ridden 20th-century detective solve a 500-year-old crime? The murder of the young princes in the Tower of London in 1483 is the most notorious crime in English royal history. The prime suspect has long been Richard III, portrayed as a monster by everyone from early propagandists writing immediately after Richard’s death to Shakespeare himself. In this, the book repeatedly voted one of the best mystery novels of all time, queen of Golden Age crime Josephine Tey tackles the question of Richard’s guilt via her own celebrated detective. 

The Josephine Tey Collection includes unabridged recordings of all 6 of the novels in the Inspector Alan Grant series. This audiobook is fully indexed. Once downloaded, each book and chapter will be listed so you can easily navigate to the individual section. The novels included here are: The Man in the Queue - Inspector Alan Grant searches for the identity of a man killed in the line at a theatre and for the identity of the killer—whom no-one saw. A Shilling for Candles - 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, even though the area is notorious for such incidents. The Franchise Affair - A town full of colourful characters and an impossible disappearance, all threaded through with Tey’s signature psychological probing. To Love and Be Wise - The incomparable Inspector Alan Grant returns in the latest addition to our enormously popular Josephine Tey series. As well as all the usual delights of Tey’s writing and the Inspector himself, To Love and Be Wise also features one of the most cunning and surprising twists of any of Tey’s novels. The Daughter of Time - Still Tey’s most enduringly popular mystery. Can a bed-ridden 20th-century detective solve a 500-year-old crime? The Singing Sands - Centres on the mysterious death of a young man on a train, and the cryptic poem that gradually reveals the greed and envy behind his demise.