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rickaevans 's review for:
The Franchise Affair
by Josephine Tey
Josephine Tey is frequently acclaimed as one of the greatest of the Golden Age crime writers, although her output was relatively small compared to some of her contemporaries, such as Christie or Marsh. For my first Tey I selected THE FRANCHISE AFFAIR, one of several of her novels to feature her lead character Inspector Grant. Yet whilst I believe Grant is the protagonist in most of the books in which he appears, in this case he is a minor character, only existing on the periphery of the main action.
Without giving too much away, a basic précis of the plot is that two women are accused of imprisoning a young girl, forcing her to work as a maid and beating her. The story hinges largely not on whether they did or didn’t commit the crime, but how they can prove their innocence.
I found this to be a markedly different read to most Golden Age fare. For starters it’s not really a whodunnit, more a howcantheygetoutofit. The basic plot premise is simple, and despite the fact there is little in the way of surprise, Tey slowly builds the tension throughout.
I suppose in modern terms it could be described as a rather gentle tale. That is, if one likes one’s crime novels to be blood splattered and gory. But in many ways this book is actually rather savage. It marvellously sends up the extremes of both the right and left wing press, and shows a fierce intelligence on the effects of media manipulation which seems even more pertinent to today’s reader.
One of the things I admired about this book is how realistic much of it felt in comparison to other works from the Golden Age. This is not a story in which people can remember precise details of what they were doing at the time of half past eleven three months previously. Indeed, much of the plot is driven by the balance of circumstantial evidence and public prejudice.
Ultimately, like many of her contemporary crime writers, Tey’s view is a conservative one, and her morality is decidedly old-fashioned. But compared to Christie and Sayers, for example, I found Tey’s exploration of class, parochial vs metropolitan differences, the judiciary system and mass media to be much more nuanced and thought-provoking.
I highly recommend this novel, and can’t wait to read more of Tey’s slim body of work.
Without giving too much away, a basic précis of the plot is that two women are accused of imprisoning a young girl, forcing her to work as a maid and beating her. The story hinges largely not on whether they did or didn’t commit the crime, but how they can prove their innocence.
I found this to be a markedly different read to most Golden Age fare. For starters it’s not really a whodunnit, more a howcantheygetoutofit. The basic plot premise is simple, and despite the fact there is little in the way of surprise, Tey slowly builds the tension throughout.
I suppose in modern terms it could be described as a rather gentle tale. That is, if one likes one’s crime novels to be blood splattered and gory. But in many ways this book is actually rather savage. It marvellously sends up the extremes of both the right and left wing press, and shows a fierce intelligence on the effects of media manipulation which seems even more pertinent to today’s reader.
One of the things I admired about this book is how realistic much of it felt in comparison to other works from the Golden Age. This is not a story in which people can remember precise details of what they were doing at the time of half past eleven three months previously. Indeed, much of the plot is driven by the balance of circumstantial evidence and public prejudice.
Ultimately, like many of her contemporary crime writers, Tey’s view is a conservative one, and her morality is decidedly old-fashioned. But compared to Christie and Sayers, for example, I found Tey’s exploration of class, parochial vs metropolitan differences, the judiciary system and mass media to be much more nuanced and thought-provoking.
I highly recommend this novel, and can’t wait to read more of Tey’s slim body of work.