TITLE: THE SINGING SANDS
AUTHOR: JOSEPHINE TEY
Pages: 223
Date: 12/10/2011
Grade: 5-
Details: #6 Alan Grant
Own
When Inspector Alan Grant finds himself battling claustrophobia and
panic attacks as a result of overwork, he takes himself on a fishing holiday to
Scotland.
At the end of his overnight train-ride he stumbles on the body of a
young man who has died during the night. Because he is on his holidays he
doesn’t get involved in the recovery of the body or the subsequent inquest.
While in the dead man’s compartment he accidentally picks up a newspaper on
which he discovers the handwritten lines of an unknown poem. Lines that speak
of “the stones that walk” and “the singing sands”.
Intrigued Grant decides to try and find out where the poem comes from
and what the mysterious lines mean. Initially though his enquiries only lead to
more questions. Who exactly was the young man on the train and did the papers
found with him actually belong to him? And most importantly, did he die as a
result of an accident, as the inquest concluded, or was this in fact a case of
a very diabolical murder?
This was a wonderful mystery. It starts of very leisurely and had me,
for a long time, wondering if there actually was a mystery to be solved in this
book. However, once it becomes clear that there is more to be discovered than
the origins of a poem, the story takes off and suddenly the pace picks up.
Josephine Tey in this book has written an intriguing mystery in the most
beautiful language. Her descriptions of people and places are vivid and clear
while her view of people and their characteristics are to the point, if not
always kind.
I found myself reading this book with a constant smile on my face,
something that doesn’t happen very often and am very glad that there are three
more Alan Grant mysteries that I’ve yet to find and read.
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