To Love and Be Wise (Inspector Alan Grant Book 4)

Josephine Tey's writing was very creative in the sense that she seemed to search and experiment a little differently with each book. She wrote several books about Inspector Grant and their quality ranged from so so to brilliant, but they never fell into a pattern. To Love and Be Wise had some brilliant scenes and characterizations, and Grant's personality was much more human than in some instances, although the plot felt implausible. Tey's fans, though, do not necessarily read for her plots, but for those lovely passages when she creates worlds with her words and she could use words like no other golden age mystery writer, even Sayers. She was hard to pin down, but in her best work she soared and if you read To Love and Be Wise carefully you will find several of those instances. I recommend it for anyone for whom finding a phrase well turned is like discovering diamonds.

This quiet crime novel from Britain's Golden Age of mystery writing is an engrossing suspense story, and a very good book. I first read (and loved) Josephine Tey in my youth. Returning after fifty years, I was afraid that she wouldn't be as good as I remembered, or that the age of the novels would translate into datedness. Not so! "To Love and Be Wise" poses an ingenious puzzle in the context of a literary hamlet, full of interesting and/or outrageous and/or really difficult personalities. Inspector Grant of Scotland Yard enters into this milieu to solve the aforesaid puzzle (which I will not reveal, no risk of spoilers in this review). In the process, the author gives a strong sense of rural England, literary life, and various other subtopics, while maintaining the suspense of the central story. Her style is delicate and polite, which may seem dated but also seems nice. Now to go reread the rest of her (unfortunately small) oeuvre.

Josephine Tey continues to be about the only "Golden Age" mystery writer that I care for (although I have begun making inroads on Dorothy L. Sayers), and To Love and Be Wise continues my admiration of her writing.The cast of characters sparkles. The celebrities are all eccentric in their own little ways. Some of them make you laugh, some of them make you shake your head, and some just make you want to slap them. The excellent working relationship of Grant and the trusty Detective Sergeant Williams is further explained. And that disappearance of Leslie Searle is truly puzzling-- although Tey plants a vital clue to its solution at the very beginning of the story.More than anything else-- especially with Williams being pulled away to conclude a case in London-- the pace is slow and deliberate, as though Grant is taking a leisurely stroll through the suspect pool and trying the noose on each of them for size. And as he's sizing them up, the reader is allowed to do much the same. I found To Love and Be Wise quite refreshing. No electronics to fuss with. No serial killers to be in fear of. Just a very real puzzle: what on earth really happened to Leslie Searle? And... why didn't I pay more attention to that clue at the very beginning of the book? At the rate I'm going, I may actually become a fan of these classic mysteries!

Ms. Tey was the mistress of the slow moving mystery: there are invariably parts of her books where not much happens, but the reader continues engrossed. It is a combination of fine writing, original plotting and interesting characters that make her novels so appealing. In this case, a handsome and intriguing stranger is introduced into a group with upsetting consequences. Then, he mysteriously disappears into the night. The author's civilized, educated and compassionate detective, Alan Grant, is charged with finding out what happened. For all of her originality, Ms. Tey does pull one pair of stock characters from the Agatha Christie box of useful cliches. This is the clever young woman happy to accept a secondary position to stay with the good natured idiot she is attached to. This, more than anything else, dates the story. Today, the woman would be a high flying professional or executive. Aside from being an excellent mystery, this book demonstrates what an alien world the mid-twentieth century seems today.

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 Love and Be Wise" is the second best Alan Grant mystery, coming a bare second to "The Daughter of Time". Elizabeth MacKintosh populates this tale, set in the English countryside and a small village overrun with "artsy types", with a cast of the most unusual characters. The ending of the mystery is quite fresh, with a great twist regarding a missing body.

So nice to have a book to read which uses vocabulary- might sound a mad comment but I so enjoyed this. I know this is possibly for many an old fashioned book, no sex, no swearing, but I thought it was well plotted and some really great characters - just wasn’t long enough!! To me, such a good story teller.I read the Daughter if Time years ago and it changed my ideas about Richard III completely. Going to carry on and read some more.

Subtle, subversive and sly, this is one of the best of Tey's novels. In it, everyone is wrong-footed, and even the most perceptive reader has to be on their toes.Just what is it that causes the frisson of an oddly-placed feeling when Alan Grant first encounters Leslie Searle? Searle is a highly personable American photographer whose presence causes many ripples in the village of Salcott St Mary, before and after he disappears, and is presumed murdered.The plot is neatly and tightly executed and Tey's wry and dry Scottish sense of fun is much in evidence as is her ability to pin a character in a few words.Be intrigued. Read and enjoy.4.5 stars.

They do not write them like this anymore! No blood, violence, profanity, forensic or pathological detail, no maverick cop with marital/alcohol/drug problem and no serial killer in sight. A puzzle for you to solve is presented and all the hints and clues are there. Precise thumbnail portraits of all involved, the whole written in elegant prose. Loses a star because I do not think the premise works, the other way round perhaps.

This gentle mystery, with its wealth of eccentric, colourful, slightly larger-than-life characters, generally kept me engrossed, though I did feel at one point that the it was rather too drawn out. I liked the fact that the reader was given time to get to know the various characters, including the portrait photographer, Leslie Searle around whose disappearance the plot revolves, before the arrival of Inspector Grant to solve the mystery. Being a fly on the wall in the village of Salcott St Mary, where most of the action occurs and being in a position to see the reactions of the different characters to the visiting American ,Searle, was fascinating, as well as being good preparation for the investigation itself. The end is well thought out. I am pleased to say I had partially solved the case, though one aspect of the denouement was a surprise. Well worth the read.

Every Josephine Tey novel is different but always fascinating and a very good read. 'To Love and be Wise' is clever and, while you may think you have the answer, the final denouement is quite surprising. To say any more would just give the whole game away. So, dear Reader, finish the book and see what you think.