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Preview
  • The Man in the Queue

  • Inspector Alan Grant, Book 1
  • By: Josephine Tey
  • Narrated by: Karen Cass
  • Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins
  • 4.0 out of 5 stars (64 ratings)

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The Man in the Queue

By: Josephine Tey
Narrated by: Karen Cass
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Summary

#1 in the Inspector Alan Grant series.

Inspector Alan Grant searches for the identity of a man killed in the line at a theater and for the identity of the killer—whom no one saw.

A long line had formed for the standing-room-only section of the Woffington Theatre. London’s favorite musical comedy of the past two years was finishing its run at the end of the week. Suddenly, the line began to move, forming a wedge before the open doors as hopeful theatergoers nudged their way forward. But one man, his head sunk down upon his chest, slowly sank to his knees and then, still more slowly, keeled over on his face. Thinking he had fainted, a spectator moved to help, but recoiled in horror from what lay before him: the man in the queue had a small silver dagger neatly plunged into his back. With the wit and guile that have made Inspector Grant a favorite of mystery fans, the inspector sets about discovering just how a murder occurred among so many witnesses, none of whom saw a thing.

Public Domain (P)2023 SNR Audio
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What listeners say about The Man in the Queue

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

An ok story but tries to be too arty

I got lost and bored listening to the unnecessary prose. It felt like a sentence was written then a thesaurus was used to find an alternative word for each word in the sentence. Eventually the story got going and it wasn’t too bad. Narrator was ok, a few iffy accents but on the whole listenable.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Lovely to read again

A classic crime story with an interesting detective. Not my favourite of her books but I really enjoyed it.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent!

Wonderful writing, satisfying who done it , very good narration. Josephine Tey was a very gifted author, lovely twists in her story telling .

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great crime fiction by an unsung heroine

Fantastic story - pacy, funny, great characters. Superbly read by Karen Cass. I am now going to read all Josephine Tey's books.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Hard to follow

I possess all of Josephine Tey’s books, except this one. Found this first audible rendition incredibly hard to follow and my attention constantly wandering. It was a great effort to finish.

The narrator was excellent for women characters, but utterly awful playing the men. It spoilt the enjoyment.

Having said all that, I have downloaded the entire collection (64 hours) of her books with one credit and hope this just happens to be my least favourite.


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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Bad ending

A bit of a cheating ending I felt. Up to then I had enjoyed it.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Classic

These are gems, from the days before technology and mobile phones, when detection relied on solid police questioning - or not! A great classic, enjoyable to the final revelation.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Spoiled by narration

Josephine Tey is an excellent author and I wanted to enjoy this tale. The narrator, though, read in such a flippant and irritating manner that I abandoned this on 2 separate occasions.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Not much of a deceive story.

Not a lot of atmosphere, dragged a bit. The twist at the end was unimpressive!

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Cheating end

I thought the story was quite good but the end was cheating. I liked the reader. I will try other books in the series but the end here was really disappointing

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