Customer Reviews

To Love and be Wise (Classic Crime)

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Of the 7 (she wrote 8) of her "mysteries" that I've now read, this is IMHO one of the best. It's not as good as the fantastic "Daughter of Time" but in a class with (but maybe not quite as good as) "Brat Farrar." It's much better than "A Shilling of Candles." Essentially, if you read Tey mysteries in the order written, you will see her getting better and better. As many have written, it's a shame we don't get to see what she might have written had she lived longer. As one of her later novels, this one includes several familiar characters: Inspector Grant (the protagonist), Marta Hallard (whose character is greatly rounded out herein), Jammy Hopkins (a cameo so to speak), & Grant's favorite Sgt., Williams. The book includes considerable humor and funny dialog as well as some lovely or interesting phrasing: "It is very dreadful being suspended from a spider's thread," "So disheartening for a woman, don't you feel, to be weighed against a rabbit, and to know that she will inevitably be found wanting," "One of the secrets of a successful life is to know how to be a little profitably crazy." It's the only one so far that gives the reader even a ghost of a chance to guess the ending--though it's almost impossible here too. The ending is reasonable but hardly likely. One does wonder about Grant's dearth of romance considering the appearance of several women to whom he seems attracted. Not Tey's forte apparently. Still, this is a fine mystery novel, not dated, but comparable to some of the better ones being produced today.

This is one of Josephine Tey's lesser known mysteries. "Daughter of Time" and "The Franchise Affiar" are, perhaps better known. This novel is in the Inspector Grant series and concerns the disappearance of a young man whom Grant had met briefly at a party.

The writing and atmosphere of this novel are both excellent. Unlike some other Tey novels, I enjoyed this one more for the characters and setting, rather than plotting. Tey has a fine ear for dialogue and humor and Grant is a pleasure to go detecting with.

TO LOVE AND BE WISE is one of the best of the eight novels of Josephine Tey. The reader will be confused along with Inspector Alan Grant until the very last as to what happen to Leslie Searle.
Insp. Grant met Ms. Searle very briefly at a London party and thought no more about him until he was sent to Salcott St. Mary to investigate the drowning of the young man who had been visiting the home of a beloved radio commentator.
This one will have you back tracking to check to see if you've missed a clue unknown to Insp. Grant.
Nash Black, author of SINS OF THE FATHERS and QUALIFYING LAPS.
Writing as a Small BusinessHaintsThe Bluegrass Dream: A Wilderness Adventure of Early Settlers

I love Josephine Tey - and her Inspector Grant series. (I wish she had written more books!)
In THIS book, we actually get to know Inspector Grant. Ms. Tey does not feature her detective as much as other authors do. But her books are fascinating regardless.
The plot of this mystery centers around a 'near-perfect' man named Leslie Searle. He shows up out of nowhere and associates himself with the family of Walter Whitmore, local celebrity. Then, he disappears. Grant is assigned to find his body, but is Searle really dead?
The title of this book comes from a question that is asked in the middle of the book: "Is it really possible to love someone AND be wise?"
Every time I read one of Tey's books, the word 'delicious' comes to mind. I enjoy them so much that I want to savor them, never letting them end. But the mysteries always madden me, pushing me onward to the conclusion.
I liked The Franchise Affair the best, but this book is a close second. We'll have to see if my opinion changes after reading Brat Farrar!

This is one of Tey's more by-numbers mysteries. She departed from formula with the great Daughter of Time, Franchise Affair and Miss Pym Disposes, all of which break new ground in utterly different ways. But this one gets weirder as it goes along. As well as a puzzle, it is a critique of the popular novels of the day. Does it come before or after Daughter of Time? Here we meet the authors whose works the bedridden Grant finds unreadable in Daughter. Silas Wheatley, whose speciality is the agricultural saga with added dirt. The charming Lavinia Fitch, who has no illusions about the soppiness of her heroines. Conveniently they, and actress Marta Hallard (also a character in Daughter) all live in the same quaint village they have gleefully discovered.

Josephine Tey's mysteries never disappoint me. They are well written, with dialog that flows very naturally. The plot always has an interesting twist. She also brings in a sense of place and time that make setting an important part of the story line. Her stories are simply elegant and not gruesome. It's a shame she didn't have time to write more books.

Tey again thinks outside the box in her plotting, years before that term existed. I wish she'd have had at least another decade to write in. I'd read all of her books that I could find 20 years ago, in the pre-internet & pre-Amazon days. So I'm glad to have found TO LOVE AND BE WISE. One thing I noticed was how little reference there was to WWII. Then I thought of the possible explanation: that a British writer in 1950 took the war for granted, while more recent authors felt they had to mention it.

In no ways as prolific a writer of mysteries as the Queen of British Mystery (Agatha Christie) or most of the Princesses (Allingham, Marsh, James, et al), but at about the same number as Sayers, Josephine Tey has given us a somewhat offbeat puzzle for Inspector Grant, her hero, to put together. A strikingly appealing young man, a famously successful professional photographer, is invited to visit in the home of well-known media people in a small community heavily laden with similar types. After a brief time, he disappears. What happened to him? Inspector Grant, who has met him by chance, and is at ease with the social types to be found in the community, is brought in to find the missing person and to find out why he went missing.
We get to meet these rather offbeat characters and to join in the hunt. The book draws us rapidly along the trail and, ultimately, confronts us with an offbeat solution.
Of course, in 1950, when published, the theme, its development and resolution would have raised a melody in very light counterpoint, so to speak, barely hidden from the reader. Today, in 2011, the counerpoint weave sinuously and emphatically, to become unmistakable at the end.
Naturally, the code of ethics of the mystery story reviewer prevents eucidation of the point, but it will be apparent to those who choose to share the general pleasure in Tey's books.

To anyone of middle age wondering why the times of our youth are so much more memorable and vivid and magical than latter-life experiences, Tey sums it up nicely in one of the last lines of the book: "The fantastical was for adolescents; for adults there were adult joys."
PLOT TALK: there is a device -- and I don't know if you could call it a device, more a plot necessity; and that happens often in Tey's books, I've noticed -- that gives a big hint to the mystery in To Love and Be Wise. Inspector Grant was to conduct an interview with the missing Leslie Searle's cousin, a scene I was looking forward to. But then the meeting, due a circumstance of plot, had to be canceled; I could not recall any other book where the author sets up such a tasty tete a tete, then cancels it. But of course Tey had to.

Marta Hallard is an actress, Alan Grant a Detective-Superintendent at Scotland Yard. Grant is useful as an escort. Leslie Searle, an American and a photographer, is invited to spend the weekend at Salcott St. Mary at the home of Lavinia Fitch and Walter Whitmore and other family members. Leslie Searle seems to be famous. Lavinia's sister, Emma, dislikes him. Emma's daughter Liz, secretary to her Aunt Lavinia, likes him very much.

Toby Tullis, an actor, has a place in Salcott. He is so famous he is surprised that Searle has never heard of him. Perhaps Searle, who photographs celebrities, is having him on. Walter and Searle decide to do a book together. Walter is a broadcaster for the BBC. His trademark is an unself-conscious friendliness. Liz is engaged to Walter.

Lavinia feels a wrongness and a fascination with Searle. Liz is clearly fascinated. The book plan is for Walter to do the text and for Searle to provide the illustrations. It is to be a portrait of a particular river its entire length, from the source to the sea. The pair intends to use a canoe. The work is to have the title CANOES ON THE RUSHMERE.

At the start they are to sleep in a cave. Five days later they walk into the pub, the Swan, where they usually drank. The men seemed to have been having a personal discussion and none of the others ventured to their area. Afterwards Searle said that Walter left in order to avoid throttling him. Searle disappears.

Alan Grant arrives to question the BBC commentator, Walter Whitmore. He reported the disappearance the morning following the evening at the pub. Grant thinks the disppearance has an aspect of the sawn lady about it. Grant asks Walter if Searle is the person he purports to be, a photographer of celebrities. Perhaps Searle lost his way in the dark and fell into the river.

The room Searle occupied is devoid of atmosphere. Walter Whitmore seems to be deteriorating, visibly. The press has reached him. Grant's friend Marta functions as a sounding board. The next development is that Searle's shoe is discovered. The solution to the mystery is another instance of Josephine Tey's (Elizabeth McKintosh's) resourceful use of an identity theme.