The Singing Sands

Book #6 in the Inspector Alan Grant series.

“The mind can play tricks, you know, when it’s weary.”

Published posthumously in 1952, The Singing Sands is the last of Josephine Tey’s mystery novels featuring Inspector Alan Grant.

Inspector Alan Grant, suffering from stress and anxiety, takes leave from Scotland Yard and heads for the peaceful home of an old friend who lives in the Scottish Highlands. As the night train pulls into Inverness, Grant literally stumbles upon the body of a young man in a train compartment that reeks of whisky – but after informing the steward that the man is dead, he leaves, determined not to allow anything to interfere with his plans for a complete rest.

But he absent-mindedly carries a newspaper away from the scene with him, a newspaper with a cryptic poem scribbled in the margin: The beasts that talk, The streams that stand, The stones that walk The singing sand.. . That guard the way To Paradise. Thoroughly intrigued by the poem, and unable to shake the memory of the dead passenger, Grant finds his break turning into a Busman’s Holiday—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 and the murder, but to reflect on his own state of mind as he begins to recover from his emotional turmoil.

With its themes of mental health, the search for clarity amid chaos, and the conflict between despair and duty, The Singing Sands is a unique blend of mystery novel and reflective character study... and is a fitting farewell to the much-loved character of Inspector Alan Grant.

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.