The Singing Sands [Hardcover]

Josephine Tey (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Peter Davies (1961)
• ASIN: B001PDG7BC
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Josephine Tey is one of the best-known and best-loved of all crime writers. She began to write full-time after the successful publication of her first novel, The Man in the Queue (1929), which introduced Inspector Grant of Scotland Yard. In 1937 she returned to crime writing with A Shilling for Candles, but it wasn't until after the Second World War that the majority of her crime novels were published. Josephine Tey died in 1952, leaving her entire estate to the National Trust.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Oh What a Wonderful Tey!, June 6, 2003

By 

S. Schwartz "romonko" (alberta canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Singing Sands (Paperback)

This book is definitely my favourite of the Ins. Grant series. It is truly unfortunate that Ms. Tey was taken from us so young. Just think what she would have written! This book was published posthumously after her untimely death. It is as perfect a mystery as you will ever come across. In the book Grant is going on a holiday. On the train that he has taken to go to Scotland to visit friends, a young man is found dead in his room. It truly looked like misadventure, but something about it disturbed Grant and got him searching a trail that took him to the Hebrides, back to London, and to Marseilles. And what actually got him going on this impossible search were a few lines of poetry scrawled on a newspaper that the young victim had had with him before he died. Wonderful story!

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tey's Best, December 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Singing Sands (Audio Cassette)

"The Singing Sands" is Tey's most riveting and well-crafted novel. It has more wonderful characters, more variety and beauty in the scenery/locations, and a less intense pace than her other books. It also takes the reader deeper into Grant's psyche than any of the others.

Grant is a complex and interesting man, and his Scottish voyage is more than just chasing down a confounding mystery: it is a lonely and revealing internal journey for him, at the end of which he finds resolution and new depths in himself, comfort and at-homeness within.

Tey was fascinated with Grant and in "Sands" she explored new aspects of her delicious character, perhaps falling in little in love with him in the process. I know I did.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It may take some time to appreciate, April 10, 2002

By 

Chelle "Chelle" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Singing Sands (Paperback)

The concept behind Tey's *The Singing Sands* immediately drew me in. A bit of poetry written on a newspaper leads the inspector to solve a crime that only he believes is indeed actually a crime. Yes, very interesting. However, once I started reading I found the pacing a little slow. Grant was far more introspective, more concerned with his own fears, than most mystery protagonists. Which was not, by any means, a bad thing. I just had to adjust my mindset a bit. Once I realized that this was not to be a typical solve it and feel good mystery, I found myself sinking in, slowly. Admittedly, it took me a couple of days after finishing the novel to appreciate it, to find it a satisfying read. But one thing has definitely come from reading *The Singing Sands*--I'm now looking forward to reading more Josephine Tey novels.