“It was all wrong that someone so young should be lying there when all the world was waking up to a brilliant day; when so much of life lay in front of her.”

Published in 1936, A Shilling for Candles is the second book in Josephine Tey’s series of detective novels featuring Inspector Alan Grant.

When the body of a young woman is washed up on a beach in Kent, she’s believed to have accidentally drowned. But the presence of a button in her hair and signs of a struggle on her hands lead Inspector Alan Grant to believe she may have been murdered.

As Grant investigates, potential suspects in the death of screen star Christine Clay stack up at a rapid pace and he must untangle a web of secrets, fame and deception in the glittering world of celebrity.

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 characterized 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.