Review: A Shilling for Candles

A Shilling for Candles by Josephine Tey

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really like Inspector Grant and this novel focused mostly on him as he worked to figure out how the woman on the beach had died. Tey used a lot of foreshadowing in the book, but she does it in a really direct way -- the omniscient narrator jumps right in to say that such and such a clue isn't going to get them anywhere, or that the key to the puzzle will come from so and so. I think this technique really helps to hold together the various strands of the story as we follow the police force through their search. If the reader didn't know any more than Grant does I think it might be tougher to keep the reader going when the investigation stalls.

This book meets the reqirement for a title with something that could go in your pocket for the What's In A Name 5 challenge.