To Love and Be Wise

APPLE BOOKS REVIEW

In selecting this subtle, engrossing classic, Val throws the spotlight on a crime writer’s crime writer who broke new ground with the subjects she investigated.

Val McDermid’s review: “Josephine Tey is the least known but, in my opinion, the most interesting of the great female writers of the Golden Age (of Detective Fiction). This is not a sensational story of mean streets and violence. Rather it’s a disarmingly low-key tale of a mysterious disappearance, and the seismic effect it has on the characters whose lives it touches. Alone of her generation of crime writers, Tey was fascinated by questions of identity, culpability and gender, and this is the perfect introduction to her world.”

Sarah Hilary’s review: “Oh what a pleasure to re-read this gem of a book! Josephine Tey’s Inspector Grant mysteries are immeasurably brilliant—I have a weakness for dashing detectives, and he ticks every box—and this is perhaps the best. I defy anyone not to fall in love with Tey’s cast of characters. Her wry storytelling and sheer skill of her plotting which will leave you breathless from the big reveal, and desperate to re-read.”

Joseph Knox’s review: “The definition of a classic, a real cut above the rest. What I enjoyed most was the way that the novel satisfies, and tugs at, the conventions of crime fiction, while subtly subverting them. That begins with the crime itself, its victim and perpetrator, and ends with the compassionate and shockingly modern twist. I have no doubt that readers of To Love and Be Wise will find a new favourite in Tey.”