The Man in the Queue

Name: The Man in the Queue
Author: Josephine Tey

The novel follows Inspector Alan Grant of Scotland Yard as he investigates the murder of a man in a queue outside a London theatre. The victim, a young man named John Bellingham, was shot in the back of the head. As Grant investigates, he discovers that Bellingham was a man of many secrets, and that the list of suspects is long. Grant must use all of his skills to uncover the truth and bring the murderer to justice. Along the way, he must contend with a mysterious woman, a shady lawyer, and a host of other characters who all have something to hide. The Man in the Queue is a classic mystery novel that has been praised for its suspenseful plot and its vivid characters. It is considered one of Tey's best works and is often compared to the works of Agatha Christie.

By Josephine Tey · First published 1929 · Genre: Mystery, Crime Fiction, Detective Fiction · 18 chapters · 80,612 words

First lines

It was between seven and eight o'clock on a March evening, and all over London the bars were being drawn back from pit and gallery doors. Bang, thud, and clank. Grim sounds to preface an evening's amusement. But no last trump could have so galvanized the weary attendants on Thespis and Terpsichore standing in patient column of four before the gates of promise. Here and there, of course, there was no column. At the Irving, five people spread themselves over the two steps and sacrificed in warmth what they gained in comfort; Greek tragedy was not popular. At the Playbox there was no one; the Playbox was exclusive, and ignored the existence of pits. At the Arena, which had a three weeks' ballet season, there were ten persons for the gallery and a long queue for the pit. But at the Woffington both human strings tailed away apparently into infinity. Long ago a lordly official had come down the pit queue and, with a gesture of his outstretched arm that seemed to guillotine hope, had said, "All after here standing room only." Having thus, with a mere contraction of his deltoid muscle, separated the sheep from the goats, he retired in Olympian state to the front of the theatre, where beyond the glass doors there was warmth and shelter. But no one moved away from the long line. Those who were doomed to stand for three hours more seemed indifferent to their martyrdom. They laughed and chattered, and passed each other sustaining bits of chocolate in torn silver paper. Standing room only, was it? Well, who would not stand, and be pleased to, in the last week of _Didn't You Know?_ Nearly two years it had run now, London's own musical comedy, and this was its swan song. The stalls and the circle had been booked up weeks ago, and many foolish virgins, not used to queues, had swelled the waiting throng at the barred doors because bribery and corruption had proved unsuccessful at the box office. Every soul in London, it seemed, was trying to crowd into the Woffington to cheer the show just once again. To see if Golly Gollan had put a new gag into his triumph of foolery--Gollan who had been rescued from a life on the road by a daring manager, and had been given his chance and had taken it. To sun themselves yet once more in the loveliness and sparkle of Ray Marcable, that comet that two years ago had blazed out of the void into the zenith and had dimmed the known and constant stars. Ray danced like a blown leaf, and her link aloof smile had killed the fashion for dentifrice advertisements in six months. "Her indefinable charm," the critics called it, but her followers called it many extravagant things, and defined it to each other with hand-wavings and facial contortions when words proved inadequate to convey the whole of her faery quality. Now she was going to America, like all the good things, and after the last two years London without Ray Marcable would be an unthinkable desert. Who would not stand forever just to see her once more?

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The Man in the Queue is listed on Textopian as a novel by Josephine Tey, dated 1929 CE.

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Work type: Novel
Author: Josephine Tey
Date: 1929 CE
Language: English
Genres: Mystery, Crime Fiction, Detective Fiction, Thriller, Historical Fiction
Length: 80,612 words
Structure: 18 chapters, 2,758 paragraphs
Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)

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Genres

Mystery — The Man in the Queue is a classic mystery novel by Josephine Tey, which follows the investigation of a murder in a London theatre queue.
Crime Fiction — The Man in the Queue is a crime fiction novel, as it follows the investigation of a murder and the search for the perpetrator.
Detective Fiction — The Man in the Queue is a detective fiction novel, as it follows the investigation of a murder and the search for the perpetrator by a detective.
Thriller — The Man in the Queue is a thriller novel, as it follows the investigation of a murder and the search for the perpetrator, creating suspense and tension throughout the story.