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3.84 AVERAGE
3.84 AVERAGE
I've been wanting to read this Tey title for a very long time &, other than the reader sees very little of Inspector Grant, it did not disappoint.
This tale of the disappearance of a young girl & her bizarre accusations against a mother & daughter was very hard to put down and I wolfed through it in around 24 hours.
As it is a Golden Age you have to put up with an author's foibles, & Ms Tey has the firm belief that you can tell a criminal by certain characteristics - in this book eye colour(!) Never mind. Tey's ability to sketch characters in a few words & her realisation of small town life is quite wonderful & I was entertained until the end.
This tale of the disappearance of a young girl & her bizarre accusations against a mother & daughter was very hard to put down and I wolfed through it in around 24 hours.
As it is a Golden Age you have to put up with an author's foibles, & Ms Tey has the firm belief that you can tell a criminal by certain characteristics - in this book eye colour(!) Never mind. Tey's ability to sketch characters in a few words & her realisation of small town life
Spoiler
certainly not all innocent bliss!
dark
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Highlights: sheer cattiness, little nightingale turns of phrase, the dowager.
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
For a classic mystery of the "golden age" of mysteries, read The Franchise Affair, by Josephine Tey. I have tried her before, and loved the truly amazing Daughter of Time. Actually, the detective of that book makes a couple of brief appearances in The Franchise Affair but this is not a police procedural. The crime that occurs in this novel (the "affair") is that a young woman, Betty Kane, accuses two women of holding her hostage for days and making her work in their home, known as The Franchise. Pretty tame stuff. But this is a small English village, and the local authorities think this is a very big deal, and want to arrest the two women. This is where our hero comes in. Robert Blair is the local lawyer, and the younger woman comes to him for help. Skeptical at first, Robert eventually becomes firmly involved in their defense. So the mystery that he must solve is what really happened to Betty Kane. Somehow Betty had a wealth of details about the Franchise, and a big issue for Robert is to discover how she could know so many thing about a place she had never been. Its not a fast-paced story, but one where the relationships build and the clues build until the very satisfying resolution. It is also an interesting and relevant critique of how the media can affect the pursuit of justice, as the local tabloids swing popular opinion about the case. Appealing characters and careful plotting make for a lovely quiet afternoon read.
This book is a good reminder that a mystery doesn't need to involve a murder. Solicitor Robert Blair was about to leave his office in a small English town when the phone rang. Marion Sharpe, who lived with her mother in a large, but very run-down country house called The Franchise, wanted him to come immediately because she and her mother were being accused of a crime. A 15 year old girl named Betty Kane arrived with the police and accused the two women of kidnapping her, holding her in their attic for a month, and regularly beating her. Robert doesn't believe the story for a second and decides to help the women by discrediting Betty's story. But once the story breaks in the tabloids and the nation takes Betty to their breast, the cards seemed to be stacked against him. This book, first published in 1947, examines the role of public opinion in a small town, the role of the media in forming national opinion, and one man's belief that the truth will always be revealed.
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
funny
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This was a favorite of hers and it still holds up. (Note to self: see my original reviews under [b:Three By Tey: Miss Pym Disposes / The Franchise Affair / Brat Farrar|952318|Three By Tey Miss Pym Disposes / The Franchise Affair / Brat Farrar|Josephine Tey|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1272504783l/952318._SY75_.jpg|937230]). How in the world could the accuser so accurately describe a house she'd never set foot in? And if she wasn't really locked up there for weeks by the mother and daughter owners, where was she? Yes, as another reviewer has noted, Tey is a "Tory reactionary," but if you can ignore that aspect of her writing, this is a winner. No murder, no Grant, but justice is done, and there's a lovely twist at the end.
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No