This is one of three novels I bought in the Floral Hall Cafe, Hornsea during a lovely sunny weekend away, dancing and seeing the sea . . . . They had a huge selection of used books on offer, raising funds for their Save the Floral Hall appeal.
I chose it because I love old style, pre-modern forensics detective novels, this one was first published in 1952, and have previously enjoyed The Man in the Queue featuring the same Inspector Grant.

From Google Overview: "On sick leave from Scotland Yard, Inspector Alan Grant is planning a quiet holiday with an old school chum to recover from overwork and mental fatigue. Traveling on the night train to Scotland, however, Grant stumbles upon a dead man and a cryptic poem about “the stones that walk” and “the singing sand,” which send him off on a fascinating search into the verse’s meaning and the identity of the deceased. Grant needs just this sort of casual inquiry to quiet his jangling nerves, despite his doctor’s orders. But what begins as a leisurely pastime eventually turns into a full-blown investigation that leads Grant to discover not only the key to the poem but the truth about a most diabolical murder."

A good old-fashioned yarn from the 50s. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Heading to a friend in West Yorkshire! Enjoy - or not as the case may be!

Thank you Nu-Knees. I too enjoyed The Man In The Queue so I'm going to hold on to this for a while.
Love the postcard. Very appropriate.

I think I'm fast becoming a Josephine Tey fan! Thanks Nu-Knees.

On the way to a mutual friend.

Thank you so much for this Deltic - I'm looking forward to it. Hope you & Mrs D had a lovely Christmas....& you too Nu-knees! :o)

In this tale, Grant is on his way to holiday in Scotland when the discovery of a body on the train he's travelling on piques his professional interest, & so as the cover blurb says "..it is also the beginning of an intriguing investigation into the bizarre circumstances shrouding Charles Martin's death".

The story, I'd say, is very much of its time with some of the attitudes & language being a mite out of place in todays society. However, it's a nice change to have a mystery solved without the aid of today's technology - Grant placing ads in newspapers made me smile, a refreshing change from requests for info being plastered all over social media!

A classic mystery indeed :o)

Now sat on hubby's TBR mountain.