The Singing Sands

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Puzzle focused readers will probably not enjoy this novel and will inevitably find the ending unsatisfying, as it is one which requires an epistle to fill in the gaps of the mystery. In the 1940s, one of Bing Crosby's musical hits was "The Singing Sands of Alamosa" - a love song based on the sounds of Great Sand Dunes. There’s a convenient parking lot and boardwalk leading to two beautiful sandy beaches divided by a water channel flowing from an inland pond. Located on the eastern coast of Prince Edward Island, Singing Sands Beach is part of the larger Basin Head Provincial Park, just east of Souris.

Gortenfern beach is equally stunning and a great place for a picnic, beach-combing and exploring the rocky coastline. The geology of the region is mainly metamorphosed Pre-Cambrian sedimentary rock (Morar Group- semipelite and pelite), surrounded by Morar group psammite. Continue on this track for about 2 kilometres until you see a small wooden sign on your right directing you to the beach ot Gortenfern.The minor characters too are well drawn, with the exception of Tad the stereotyped American and Wee Archie the caricatured Scottish nationalist. He also wrote an illustrated biography of Emily Brontë and A Brontë Encyclopedia, compiled with Louise Barnard. The Franchise Affair also has an historical context: although set in the 1940s, it is based on the 18th-century case of Elizabeth Canning. Mertz, writing as Elizabeth Peters, refers explicitly to Tey in The Murders of Richard III (1974) which sets a country house murder mystery among a group who believe that Richard III was innocent. On the one hand solving this case does benefit Inspector Grant: ‘the dead young man, who could not save himself, had saved him.

I didn’t mind the slow pace of the novel as Tey’s writing style is so beautiful to read, making this a novel to enjoy for the journey it takes you on and not the destination. Go through the gate, following the blue marker dots, and bear left to pass to the right of the sheep fank heading towards the coast.Work will always hold greater interest for Inspector Grant and in fact I think he sees having a relationship as a loss of control, there is a need for him to run his life his own way, without having to compromise. There are different types of sand; singing sand, roaring sand, and whistling sand, and while these beaches are rare, there are others around the world. This is a lovely section of the walk, and provides a good opportunity to listen out for the drumming of woodpeckers, and to look out for coal tits, siskins and crossbills feeding in the tree tops.