You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
lgpiper 's review for:
The Franchise Affair
by Josephine Tey
This was a pretty fun book. Robert Blair is a sleepy, small town lawyer, dealing mostly in wills and property issues. He's called by Marion Sharpe about a problem she and her mother are having. Against his will, he agrees to meet with them. Then he is drawn into their plight.
It seems that Marion Sharpe and her mother are women of modest means who inherited a large house known as The Franchise. The Franchise sits on the outskirts of town, behind a high brick wall with an opaque iron gate for access. A young woman, Betty Kane, claims that the two women kidnapped her, starved and beat her, and tried to force her to become their servant. This went on for about a month.
Well, it's true that Betty Kane disappeared for about a month, but Blair is convinced that the Sharpes are innocent. Just how to prove it? He has to find where Betty Kane had actually been hidden. So, he takes up a bit of the life of a detective, a bit of a Sexton Blake" (I'd never heard of Sexton Blake, but it appears that back in the day he was a fictional detective every bit as famous as Sherlock Holmes or Philo Vance).
Anyway, this was a fun read, but a bit disturbing. "What was disturbing?" you might ask. Well, it seems that blue-eyed people are either oversexed or else plausible liars, likely given to murder too, depending, it seems on the shade of blue. Well, I have blue eyes, although I've no idea how to characterize their shade. I'd hate to think I was oversexed or murderous. But, who is to say?
For the terminally curious of you, here are the pertinent quotes:
It seems that Marion Sharpe and her mother are women of modest means who inherited a large house known as The Franchise. The Franchise sits on the outskirts of town, behind a high brick wall with an opaque iron gate for access. A young woman, Betty Kane, claims that the two women kidnapped her, starved and beat her, and tried to force her to become their servant. This went on for about a month.
Well, it's true that Betty Kane disappeared for about a month, but Blair is convinced that the Sharpes are innocent. Just how to prove it? He has to find where Betty Kane had actually been hidden. So, he takes up a bit of the life of a detective, a bit of a Sexton Blake" (I'd never heard of Sexton Blake, but it appears that back in the day he was a fictional detective every bit as famous as Sherlock Holmes or Philo Vance).
Anyway, this was a fun read, but a bit disturbing. "What was disturbing?" you might ask. Well, it seems that blue-eyed people are either oversexed or else plausible liars, likely given to murder too, depending, it seems on the shade of blue. Well, I have blue eyes, although I've no idea how to characterize their shade. I'd hate to think I was oversexed or murderous. But, who is to say?
For the terminally curious of you, here are the pertinent quotes:
"She is oversexed. ... I have never known anyone—man or woman—with that colour of eye who wasn't. That opaque dark blue, like a very faded navy—it's infallible"and
"there's a particular shade of baby blue that condemns a man....before he has opened his mouth. Plausible liars every one of them....Given to murder too, come to think of it...."