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Book Details

A Shilling for Candles

50% complete
1936
2016
1 time
27 chapters
Book Cover
Skeleton entry Has a genre Has an extract Has a year read Has a rating In my library In a series 
1887
 Inspector Alan Grant*
#2 of 6
Inspector Alan Grant*   See series as if on a bookshelf
A series of stories written by Josephine Tey.

1) The Man in the Queue
2) A Shilling for Candles
3) The Franchise Affair
4) To Love and Be Wise
5) Daughter of Time
6) The Singing Sands
It was a little after seven on a summer morning, and William Potticary was taking his accustomed way over the short down grass of the cliff-top.
May contain spoilers
"To Olympia at Christmas!" Grant said.
No comments on file
Synopsis not on file
Extract (may contain spoilers)
On Tuesday morning word came from Collins, the man who was investigating Champneis's wardrobe. Bywood, the valet, had proved "very sticky going," he reported. He didn't drink and he didn't smoke and there seemed to be no plane on which Collins could establish a mutual regard. But every man has his price, and Bywood's proved to be snuff. A very secret vice, it was. Lord Edward would dismiss him on the spot if he suspected such indulgence. (Lord Edward would probably have been highly pleased by anything so eighteenth century.) Collins had procured him "very special snuff," and had at last got within inspecting distance of the wardrobe. On his arrival in England - or rather, in London - Champneis had weeded out his wardrobe. The weeding out had included two coats, one dark and one camel hair. Bywood had given the camel hair one to his brother–in–law, a chorus boy; the other he had sold to a dealer in London. Collins gave the name and address of the dealer.

Grant sent an officer down to the dealer, and as the officer went through the stock the dealer said: "That coat came from Lord Edward Champneis, the Duke of Bude's son. Nice bit of stuff."

It was a nice bit of stuff. And it had all its buttons; with no sign of replacements.

Grant sighed when the news came, not sure whether he was glad or sorry. But he still wanted to know where Champneis had spent the night.

And what the Press wanted to know was where Tisdall was. Every newspaper in Britain wanted to know. The C.I.D. were in worse trouble than they had been for many years. The Clarion openly called them murderers, and Grant, trying to get a line on a baffling case, was harassed by the fury of colleagues, the condolences of his friends, a worried Commissioner, and his own growing anxiety. In the middle of the morning Jammy Hopkins rang up to explain away his "middle" in the Clarion. It was "all in the way of business," and he knew his good friends at the Yard would understand. Grant was out, and it was Williams at the other end of the telephone. Williams was not in the mood for butter. He relieved his overburdened soul with a gusto which left Hopkins hoping that he had not irretrievably put himself in the wrong with the Yard. "As for hounding people to death," Williams finished, "you know very well that the Press do more hounding in a week than the Yard has since it was founded. And all your victims are innocent!"

 

Added: 14-Jun-2015
Last Updated: 31-Oct-2019

Publications

 01-Jan-2014
ePub Books
e-Book
In my libraryI read this editionOrder from amazon.comHas a cover imageBook Edition Cover
Date Issued:
Cir 01-Jan-2014
Format:
e-Book
Pages*:
271
Read:
Once
Cover Link(s):
Internal ID:
1781
Publisher:
ISBN:
Unknown
Country:
United States
Language:
English
From epubbooks.com:

Beneath the sea cliffs of the south coast, suicides are a sad but common fact of life. Yet even the hardened coastguard knows something is wrong when a beautiful film actress is found lying dead on the beach one bright summer’s morning. Inspector Grant has to take a more professional attitude: death by suicide, however common, has to have a motive – just like murder....
Cover:
Book Cover
Notes and Comments:

Related

Author(s)

Josephine Tey  
Birth: 25 Jul 1896 Inverness, Scotland, UK
Death: 13 Feb 1952 London, England, UK

Notes:
Josephine Tey is the pseudonym that Elizabeth Mackintosh used in writing her fictional prose.  She was born in 1896 in Inverness, Scotland and died  in 1952 in London, England.  Her parents were Colin and Josephine Horne  Mackintosh.  She had two sisters who both married while she, herself,  never did.  Little is known of her personal life.  She was raised in  Inverness where she attended Anstey Physical Training College in  Birmingham and earned a living as a physical training instructor.  When  she quit work to care for her father, she began writing.  Her first  mystery novel was published in 1929 and her first play, Richard of  Bordeaux was published 1932.

She used the psuedonym Gordon Daviot when writing her plays, of which she  produced around twelve full length and about as many one-acts plays.  Only  four were given productions while she was still alive.  She also three  non-mystery novels, and a biography. 

She was a recluse and had no close friends and she never gave interviews.   She died soon after the publication of The Daughter of Time which  is considered her best work.

Awards

No awards found
*
  • I try to maintain page numbers for audiobooks even though obviously there aren't any. I do this to keep track of pages read and I try to use the Kindle version page numbers for this.
  • Synopses marked with an asterisk (*) were generated by an AI. There aren't a lot since this is an iffy way to do it - AI seems to make stuff up.
  • When specific publication dates are unknown (ie prefixed with a "Cir"), I try to get the publication date that is closest to the specific printing that I can.
  • When listing chapters, I only list chapters relevant to the story. I will usually leave off Author Notes, Indices, Acknowledgements, etc unless they are relevant to the story or the book is non-fiction.
  • Page numbers on this site are for the end of the main story. I normally do not include appendices, extra material, and other miscellaneous stuff at the end of the book in the page count.






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