The Singing Sands

A “beautifully written and insistently readable” classic mystery from the Golden Age of crime fiction, with a new introduction by author Robert Barnard (New York Times).

On sick leave from Scotland Yard, Inspector Alan Grant is planning a quiet holiday with an old school chum to recover from overwork and mental fatigue. Traveling on the night train to Scotland, however, Grant stumbles upon a dead man and a cryptic poem about “the stones that walk” and “the singing sand,” which send him off on a fascinating search into the verse’s meaning and the identity of the deceased. Grant needs just this sort of casual inquiry to quiet his jangling nerves, despite his doctor’s orders. But what begins as a leisurely pastime eventually turns into a full-blown investigation that leads Grant to discover not only the key to the poem but the truth about a most diabolical murder.

“Josephine Tey has always been absolutely reliable in producing original and mysterious plots with interesting characters and unguessable endings.” —Spectator

“Really first class . . . a continual delight.” —Times Literary Supplement