A Cup of Tey

Garden City, New York: Mystery Guild, 1999. Hardcover. New/Very Good - a bit of shelfware.. For fans of mysteries of the Golden Age, as we are, this volume is a treasure. Josephine Tey was among the greatest of mystery writers of the Golden Age, and her novel A Daughter In Time was selected, in 1990, by the British Crime Writers' Association as "the greatest mystery of all time." This hardcover includes two additional mysteries: Brat Farrar, an enthralling work and also considered a great classic, and Miss Pym Disposes, one of her early works. It is puzzling that Scottish author Tey is not as well known as she should be; her writing is much better than Christie's (although the size of her body of work cannot compare to the scope of Christie's 80+ works). Tey was the pseudonym of Elizabeth MacKintosh, and MacKintosh was also a successful playwright, working under the name of Gordon Daviot. Richard of Bordeaux was her most successful play, running for 14 months in London's West End; it is also notable for launching the career of a young John Gielgud.
New copies of this volume are uncommon, and we were fortunate in finding several new copies a few years ago. We have two left. The dust jackets of these two have some small shelfware imperfections, with one having two small closed tears. See photos. However, either a novice to the genre, or a serious fan of mysteries of the Golden Age, won't quibble if you give him/her this book. It is a stellar collection.