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holtfan 's review for:
The Daughter of Time
by Josephine Tey
4.5 stars
It is official. I need more Inspector Alan Grant in my life.
Even bored out of gourd and flat on his back, Grant makes for an entertaining read. Because that is exactly what he is doing this entire novel--stuck on a hospital bed with a spine injury before the story even begins. He is ready to go mad with boredom before his friend brings him historical portraits to look at, including Richard III, famous killer of the princes in the tower. The only problem is that Grant knows faces and he's disturbed by the fact that the infamous Richard does not appear...infamous. So while convalescing, he sets out to solve the mystery of the princes in the tower.
It doesn't sound very exciting but somehow it is. The story makes history come alive. It wouldn't surprise me at all to learn this was a Sonlight book. Just reading it made me itch to force poor, unsuspecting high schoolers to read it and write their own "versions." Besides all the British history, you get a great glimpse of academic research and the use of primary sources. Which also, in retrospect, does not sound super exciting, but it is!
Somehow this story which centers on a mystery well over 400 years old comes across puzzling and fun. It drags a little bit bit by the end (and some 'mysteries' are not actually that mysterious but get puzzled out for several chapters anyway, like why Henry II would want to legitimize the children of Edward IV) but somehow it is all worth it.
I can't explain it but I definitely enjoyed it.
It is official. I need more Inspector Alan Grant in my life.
Even bored out of gourd and flat on his back, Grant makes for an entertaining read. Because that is exactly what he is doing this entire novel--stuck on a hospital bed with a spine injury before the story even begins. He is ready to go mad with boredom before his friend brings him historical portraits to look at, including Richard III, famous killer of the princes in the tower. The only problem is that Grant knows faces and he's disturbed by the fact that the infamous Richard does not appear...infamous. So while convalescing, he sets out to solve the mystery of the princes in the tower.
It doesn't sound very exciting but somehow it is. The story makes history come alive. It wouldn't surprise me at all to learn this was a Sonlight book. Just reading it made me itch to force poor, unsuspecting high schoolers to read it and write their own "versions." Besides all the British history, you get a great glimpse of academic research and the use of primary sources. Which also, in retrospect, does not sound super exciting, but it is!
Somehow this story which centers on a mystery well over 400 years old comes across puzzling and fun. It drags a little bit bit by the end (and some 'mysteries' are not actually that mysterious but get puzzled out for several chapters anyway, like why Henry II would want to legitimize the children of Edward IV) but somehow it is all worth it.
I can't explain it but I definitely enjoyed it.