Just finished this one from Tey which completes her Inspector Grant series. On the whole this is an average series for me as far as plots go, but Grant is endearing and I may re-read a couple of my favourites in the future.

This one though was disappointing for one that started with such promise. A women is found drowned on a beach pretty infamous for suicide. Grant is called in when it turns out it was murder and the victim is a famous if reclusive actress. The cast of characters is intriguing if more than a tad stereotypical and I was disappointed at never getting to know them beyond a superficial level. 

Surprisingly, Grant’s investigation is rather haphazard. He leaps to premature conclusions without supporting evidence; and jumps from clue to red herring to clue in a most annoying manner! I couldn’t understand it at all! He borders on the careless at times, bows to societal norms at others and makes rather a mess of the whole process, before stumbling on to the solution, goodness only knows how - I’d lost all hope and interest by the time, and this isn’t a long book! 

Tey writes well, although I found her style could be abrupt in this one and some references were too colloquial or dated for me to get. The title was more significant than I thought - apparently it portrays certain emotions that I’d never have guessed if left unexplained. Still, the entire mystery felt disjointed somehow, hence the low rating.

I’ve had mixed experiences with Tey, some of her books hit the sweet spot and others are disappointing. This one belongs in the latter category, with its rather unnecessarily convoluted plot and Grant’s overly casual approach to his investigation. The characters were superficial and stereotypical and the abrupt solution felt based on intuition more than anything else, and left me wondering as to motive! Avoidable.