This is one of Tey's charming detective stories. Like so many of her works it is concerned with identity and how people present themselves. Natasha Cooper puts it better, saying she had an obsession " with the masks people wear and the truths they hide." Tey wrote a famous play in her time; in this book a number of amusing minor characters are from the world of theatre and writing. I expect they all recognised other people but not themselves...
It is scarcely possible for a god to love and be wise - Publicus Syrus (1st century BC)
It is not granted to love and be wise. Francis Bacon (1605)
And the title is definitely a clue to the solution of this detective novel, which is rarely guessed on first reading it, though you can see the clues on the second read. I have read this book several times over the last 20 years, and still find pleasure in it.
To Love And Be Wise first published 1950
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