Book #1 in the Inspector Alan Grant series.

"To err is human, but to find the truth is an art."

The Man in the Queue is the first book in Josephine Tey's series of detective novels featuring Inspector Alan Grant of Scotland Yard.

In 1920s London, the packed queue for the city's most popular musical comedy is growing impatient. When the theatre doors open at last and the crowd surges forward, a man falls to the ground, stabbed with a small silver blade. The dead man carries no identification and none of those near him in the queue noticed him until he collapsed, nor did they appear to have any motive for killing him.

Inspector Alan Grant is called in to unravel the mystery, and as he delves deeper into the identity of the victim, he uncovers a tangled web of suspects and secrets, and his investigation culminates in a breathless manhunt leading from London all the way to the Scottish highlands and back, before at last a truth is revealed that shocks even the canny detective himself.

Josephine Tey (1896-1952) was a renowned author and one of the most celebrated figures in detective fiction. Tey initially pursued a career in theatre, writing plays before shifting her focus to novels, and her writing is characterised by psychological depth, strong character development, and a subversion of traditional crime fiction norms. Her most notable works include The Daughter of Time, Brat Farrar, and The Franchise Affair, and despite her relatively small output, her influence is significant, inspiring future generations of mystery writers.

In 2015, Val McDermid argued that Tey "cracked open the door" for later writers such as Patricia Highsmith and Ruth Rendell to explore the darker side of humanity, creating a bridge between the Golden Age of Detective Fiction and contemporary crime novels