Book Review: To Love and Be Wise, by Josephine Tey

This particular book might just very well be my new favorite of Josephine Tey's Inspector Grant mysteries. It was a bit of a slow start for me, no doubt due to the poorly worded synopsis on the back, but once I got into it I couldn't put it down. I should mention that this isn't atypical of Tey mysteries (at least in terms of getting into them). They tend to plod along at the beginning and pick up about one-third of the way through. This is the very reason I couldn't finish the first Tey mystery I tried (A Shilling for Candles), but I'm glad I gave her books a second try.

To Love and Be Wise starts out with Inspector Grant attending a "literary sherry party" -- apparently, a cocktail party of sorts for a publishing company to toast the success of an author -- and while there he encounters a young man named Leslie Searle. Searle, as Grant quickly decides, is quite an interesting phenomenon. He's American, a photographer, and disconcertingly self-contained. Searle is also the type of person who has the presence that makes an impact. He shows up to meet Miss Lavinia Fitch (the toasted author) and mentions that he was hoping to meet her nephew Walter Whitmore who is a friend of someone he knows. Miss Fitch is intrigued and readily invites Searle to her home in what I assume to be the fictional Orfordshire, where her nephew Walter also lives. Additionally, Searle finds himself invited to dine with Grant's own friend Marta Hallard, a well-known actress who is also enchanted by this fascinating young man.

So Leslie Searle goes to Orfordshire and meets Walter Whitmore. He also meets Walter's fiancee (and Miss Fitch's step-niece) Liz Garrowby, and she too is interested. On the whole, Searle raises a few ruffles in the small village where they all live. He just doesn't quite make sense...if that makes any sense. There's something unexpected about him, something that doesn't quite work, and no one can quite place a finger on it. It takes a bit for all of this to sink in, and as it's sinking in Walter and Searle decide to partner up on a venture: the two will travel the nearby river in canoes, and Searle will photograph while Walter, who is a journalist, will write the text. As the two are well known enough in their own fields, the book is guaranteed to be a success.

Having started the project, Walter then decides that he doesn't quite like the young man, but Walter isn't a particularly emotive sort of fellow. He just plods along with it, until one evening when Searle provokes him during a conversation at the local pub. Walter gets up and walks out, slamming the door behind them. Searle waits a bit and then leaves too, cheerily saying goodbye to everyone else and leaving with a spring in his step.

And from then on, Leslie Searle is never seen again.

In short, he disappears. The assumption is that he fell, or was pushed, in to the river and drowned. And of course, because Walter was seen to quarrel with him Walter is the automatic suspect. The river is dragged, and nothing is found, but suspicion lands on Walter and doesn't seem in any hurry to leave. Meanwhile, no one has any idea what happened to the American photographer who made such an impact in so short a time.

Grant is called on the scene to investigate, and he does so with the knowledge that he at least met the young man who has disappeared. He conducts his search with care, but all the while he has the feeling that something isn't right, that something doesn't fit. Walter makes a poor candidate for a murderer (as Grant's sergeant points out, Walter is more like to be the one pushed into the river than the one doing the pushing), but nothing else fits. What could have happened? There's no indication that Searle would have left of his own volition, so the police have no choice but to assume something more sinister.

The only problem I really had with the solution to this mystery is that I figured it out earlier than I should. I got about halfway through and thought to myself, "This whole mystery would be simple if ______________ were the case." It turns out I was right. And it was a tiny bit disappointing (I like to be surprised), but Tey wrapped it all up quite well. I liked the conclusion; I liked how she worked it all out, and why. And now To Love and Be Wise is a definite favorite among the Tey mysteries that I've read.

Year of publication: 1950
Number of pages: 223