Maybe that is the clue to the difference: the complexities in this novel come not from the intermingling of threads as in a modern crime fiction novel, but from the language itself. On the back cover of the book is a quote from the Boston Globe: "The unalloyed pleasure of watching a really cultivated mind in action." Sometimes we talk about whether a novel has "stood the test of time", and I think perhaps what I found is that A SHILLING FOR CANDLES was written for an audience a little different to today's. In addition the novel felt a bit over populated with characters, and littered with red herrings and dead ends. I found myself constantly re-checking what I had just read. The writing is quite complex, full of little mental pictures because Tey has a graphic style, full of adjectives and adverbs, and the end effect is to slow the reader down. I found the central threads very difficult to focus on and really thought there was rather too much going on. I must confess to being a bit disappointed in the novel. You are probably familiar with other novels such as THE FRANCHISE AFFAIR, and THE DAUGHTER OF TIME. This was the second in Josephine Tey's Alan Grant novels. A clairvoyant claims to have foretold her death, and her estranged brother seems to have disappeared. The discovery of the body of a popular screen actress washed up on a beach on the southern coast of England sparks an investigation headed by Scotland Yard's top detective, Inspector Alan Grant.Ĭhristine Clay's death hits the headlines, has a global impact, "society" dusts off its mourning blacks in hope of an invitation to her funeral, and yet what comes out is that almost no-one knew who she really was. Title originally published in 1936 by Macmillan Publishing Company. Large Print edition, Chivers Press, published in 1998, ISBN 0-7540-3521-2, 358 pages.
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