A Shilling for Candles by Josephine Tey is the book that Mr. Bibliomouse bought for me in The English Bookshop in Stockholm. I already had all of her other detective novels, and had been searching for a copy of Candles for a long time, so I was stupidly excited when he gave it to me (there may have been squealing. In public. I’m not proud of myself).

Tey, the nom de plume of Elizabeth Mackintosh, is one of my favourite Golden Age authors, despite the fact that she only published 8 detective novels, and 1 of those (The Man in the Queue, her first) was published under the name of  Gordon Daviot. She is probably best known for writing A Daughter of Time, which is considered a classic in the detective genre, as well as being valuable in terms of historical research.

Tey’s detective is Inspector Alan Grant, who’s just about flawed enough to be likeable. Unlike characters such as Lord Peter Wimsey, reading about Grant doesn’t make me want to punch things- he’s good-looking and intelligent, well-off and witty, but these attributes aren’t conveyed in a manner that makes him smug or superior. Instead he’s a perfectionist who, in one instance in Candles, dwells on a mistake that he made for a good 14 chapters. By making Grant more human and less superhero (Dorothy Sayers, I’m looking at you), and inventing plots that are both intricate but just about plausible, Tey has written books that I can re-read again and again. Which is more than I can say about novels featuring a certain aristocratic know-it-all.

Candles opens with the body of a famous film star being found on a deserted beach in rural Kent. Grant starts with one promising suspect, but the case quickly unravels into several strands, each ending with someone who wanted Christine Clay dead. Whilst Grant is very much the lead, the cast of supporting characters is rather fabulous, especially Williams, Grant’s sergeant, and Erica, the Chief Constable’s daughter. Erica is an endearingly innocent and blunt 17 year old, who develops a bit of hero-worship for Grant, but in a very straight-forward manner. Coy she is not. She potters around Kent in ‘Tinny’, her aged Morris Minor, solving mysteries and generally doing things thoroughly. I loved her.

Whilst it isn’t my favourite, Candles is a really enjoyable book, with an unpredictable ending and some lovely characterisation. It’s the second in the series of books with Inspector Grant, and is perfect for a gloomy Sunday afternoon when the sun’s decided to bugger off.