The Man in the Queue, by Josephine Tey (Hardcover)

On a drizzly March evening in London, a long queue forms outside the Woffington Theatre for the final performance of a beloved musical. As the doors open, a man standing in the crowd suddenly collapses, and a silver-handled dagger is found protruding from his back. The weapon’s clean, fingerprint-free surface and the victim’s carefully erased identity suggest a murder planned with Levantine precision rather than English bluntness.

Inspector Alan Grant takes charge of the investigation, but the case offers almost no solid ground. The victim carried a fully loaded service revolver yet left no laundry marks on his clothes, and the only witnesses are seven strangers who saw nothing. As Grant interviews them and follows the faint trail of a distinctive tie and a laboratory report, he finds himself chasing shadows through the fog of a city that prefers not to look too closely.

But the theatre world holds its own secrets, and a famous star’s left-handed gesture may be the first real clue. As the inquest approaches and pressure mounts, Grant must untangle a web of concealed identities before the killer slips away into the crowd.