The Man in the Queue

The Man in the Queue is forty years old, but it could have been written today or eighty years ago. This variation on the "locked room" mystery, with a man stabbed to death in a crowded theater line, appeals to almost everyone. Tey's clever twists add to the suspense as Inspector Grant unravels the secrets of the murderer and his victim. Stephen Thorne's presentation wonderfully enhances the story; he handles men and women, as well as foreign and Cockney accents commendably. In light of the story's age, it's particularly amusing to hear the unchanging but humorous views that seem to be universally held about law enforcement and the police. Listen for them! S.G.B. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Tey's sly story about a man who's stabbed and dies unnoticed in a London theater queue is a pleasurably archaic blend of the high and low in British decorum. Read in immaculate British by Stephen Thorne, Tey's puzzle, examined and solved by the penetrating Inspector Grant, is just the sort of guilty pleasure to seek out after a grumpy week, an unexpected repair charge, a layoff. Set in the early 1950s, the time and setting, attitudes and prejudices, the very nature of the crime and its detection, couldn't be more soothingly remote from our own. Inspector Grant and his author were overshadowed by the famous historical puzzle they investigated in Audio Partners' first Tey release, THE DAUGHTER OF TIME. Here the subtle intelligence of detective and author is more on display. Sounding as if he might have recorded this in 1953, Thorne proves to be the perfect reader. D.A.W. (c) AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine