A Shilling for Candles

Came down with a heavy cold while I was staying in France but it’s getting better now. By a stroke of luck I’d slipped the perfect comfort reading into my bag and it much improved the homeward journey.

Elizabeth MacKintosh was born in 1896 in Inverness. She was a PT teacher until she returned to Inverness in 1923 to look after her parents. This gave her time to start writing and A Shilling for Candles is the murder mystery that I have just finished. I doubt you have heard of Elizabeth MacKintosh but you will recognise her when I say  she wrote under the name Josephine Tey.

I read a Josephine Tey years ago: The Daughter of Time. It is supposed to be her best. Inspector Grant, laid up in hospital with a broken leg, investigates Richard III and the veracity of his portrayal as a hunchback and murderer of the princes in the tower. But I like Inspector Grant a lot better, back on his feet investigating a juicy 20th century murder with a swirl of suspects to consider.

Alfred Hitchcock was an admirer too and his 1937 movie, Young and Innocent, is based on A Shilling for Candles. I will not wait to catch another cold before I read some more Josephine Tey. An interesting coda to her life is that she left her entire estate to the National Trust, as does the murder victim in A Shilling for Candles.

https://youtu.be/5B30kRFz2F4

One comment

Comments are closed.