Josephine Tey

Literary sherry parties were not Alan Grant's cup of tea. But when the Scotland Yard Inspector arrived to pick up actress Marta Hallard for dinner, he was struck by the handsome young American photographer, Leslie Searle. Author Lavinia Fitch was sure her guest "must have been something very wicked in ancient Greece," and the art colony at Salcott St. Mary would have agreed. Yet Grant heard nothing more of Searle until the news of his disappearance....

The first of Josephine Tey's Inspector Grant mysteries concerns the murder of a man, standing in a ticket queue for a London musical comedy. With his customary tenacity, Grant pursues his suspects through the length of Britain and the labyrinth of the city.

Scotland Yard Inspector Alan Grant becomes involved in a murder investigation when he accidentally finds a dead young man and an enigmatic verse in a train.

[Young and innocent] When a woman's body is discovered on the beach by one of her former lovers, he races off to call the police. Two witnesses see him run and think he is the escaping killer. After being arrested, he manages to escape in the confusion at the courthouse. With the assistance of the constable's daughter, he tries to prove his innocence while avoiding the police. [The Cheney vase] A fired curator begins to manipulate an elderly woman...