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Inspector Alan Grant #3
The Franchise Affair
Robert Blair was about to knock off from a slow day at his law firm when the phone rang. It was Marion Sharpe on the line, a local woman of quiet disposition who lived with her mother at their decrepit country house, The Franchise. It appeared that she was in some serious trouble: Miss Sharpe and her mother were accused of brutally kidnapping a demure young woman named Betty Kane. Miss Kane's claims seemed highly unlikely, even to Inspector Alan Grant of Scotland Yard, until she described her prison -- the attic room with its cracked window, the kitchen, and the old trunks -- which sounded remarkably like The Franchise. Yet Marion Sharpe claimed the Kane girl had never been there, let alone been held captive for an entire month! Not believing Betty Kane's story, Solicitor Blair takes up the case and, in a dazzling feat of amateur detective work, solves the unbelievable mystery that stumped even Inspector Grant.
304 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1948
About the author
Josephine Tey
96 books755 followersJosephine Tey was a pseudonym of Elizabeth Mackintosh. Josephine was her mother's first name and Tey the surname of an English Grandmother. As Josephine Tey, she wrote six mystery novels featuring Scotland Yard's Inspector Alan Grant.
The first of these, The Man in the Queue (1929) was published under the pseudonym of Gordon Daviot , whose name also appears on the title page of another of her 1929 novels, Kif; An Unvarnished History. She also used the Daviot by-line for a biography of the 17th century cavalry leader John Graham, which was entitled Claverhouse (1937).
Mackintosh also wrote plays (both one act and full length), some of which were produced during her lifetime, under the pseudonym Gordon Daviot. The district of Daviot, near her home of Inverness in Scotland, was a location her family had vacationed. The name Gordon does not appear in either her family or her history.
Elizabeth Mackintosh came of age during World War I, attending Anstey Physical Training College in Birmingham, England during the years 1915 - 1918. Upon graduation, she became a physical training instructor for eight years. In 1926, her mother died and she returned home to Inverness to care for her invalid father. Busy with household duties, she turned to writing as a diversion, and was successful in creating a second career.
Alfred Hitchcock filmed one of her novels, A Shilling for Candles (1936) as Young and Innocent in 1937 and two other of her novels have been made into films, The Franchise Affair (1948), filmed in 1950, and 'Brat Farrar' (1949), filmed as Paranoiac in 1963. In addition, a number of her works have been dramatised for radio.
Her novel The Daughter of Time (1951) was voted the greatest mystery novel of all time by the Crime Writers' Association in 1990.
Miss Mackintosh never married, and died at the age of 55, in London. A shy woman, she is reported to have been somewhat of a mystery even to her intimate friends. While her death seems to have been a surprise, there is some indication she may have known she was fatally ill for some time prior to her passing.
The first of these, The Man in the Queue (1929) was published under the pseudonym of Gordon Daviot , whose name also appears on the title page of another of her 1929 novels, Kif; An Unvarnished History. She also used the Daviot by-line for a biography of the 17th century cavalry leader John Graham, which was entitled Claverhouse (1937).
Mackintosh also wrote plays (both one act and full length), some of which were produced during her lifetime, under the pseudonym Gordon Daviot. The district of Daviot, near her home of Inverness in Scotland, was a location her family had vacationed. The name Gordon does not appear in either her family or her history.
Elizabeth Mackintosh came of age during World War I, attending Anstey Physical Training College in Birmingham, England during the years 1915 - 1918. Upon graduation, she became a physical training instructor for eight years. In 1926, her mother died and she returned home to Inverness to care for her invalid father. Busy with household duties, she turned to writing as a diversion, and was successful in creating a second career.
Alfred Hitchcock filmed one of her novels, A Shilling for Candles (1936) as Young and Innocent in 1937 and two other of her novels have been made into films, The Franchise Affair (1948), filmed in 1950, and 'Brat Farrar' (1949), filmed as Paranoiac in 1963. In addition, a number of her works have been dramatised for radio.
Her novel The Daughter of Time (1951) was voted the greatest mystery novel of all time by the Crime Writers' Association in 1990.
Miss Mackintosh never married, and died at the age of 55, in London. A shy woman, she is reported to have been somewhat of a mystery even to her intimate friends. While her death seems to have been a surprise, there is some indication she may have known she was fatally ill for some time prior to her passing.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,022 reviews
October 27, 2017
Named the 11th greatest mystery novel of all time in 1990 by the Crime Writer’s Association, The Franchise Affair was written in 1948. This is the only Inspector Grant novel where there is no murder, and the first one where Inspector Grant plays a minor role. For any mystery fan, this one is a treasure.
Robert Blair is a lawyer in a small English town and used to dealing with wills, land transfers, and other small town legal concerns. In his early 40’s, he is a bachelor and lives with his Aunt Lin who tends to him with loving care. His world gets turned upside down when a young girl accuses two women of kidnapping her, confining her to a small attic room in their home called The Franchise, and beating her when she won’t comply with their demands for her services as a maid.
There follows newspaper scandals, police investigations resulting in insufficient evidence to lay charges, and eventually charges followed by a trial when new evidence is produced. The story is exciting and well told.
Even more, it is the interactions between the characters - their psychological temperaments that are slowly revealed through the course of the novel – that add the depths and dimensions to this novel and make it stand out.
I found it difficult to put this book down because it was so fascinating and I didn’t know for sure who was believable and who wasn’t. Then, when even that part became fairly obvious, I felt compelled to find out why and how it all came about – or if more might still be revealed.
I recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of mysteries and is interested in reading how a master in the craft goes about weaving a spell for the reader. An exceptionally satisfying read – and I loved the ending!
Robert Blair is a lawyer in a small English town and used to dealing with wills, land transfers, and other small town legal concerns. In his early 40’s, he is a bachelor and lives with his Aunt Lin who tends to him with loving care. His world gets turned upside down when a young girl accuses two women of kidnapping her, confining her to a small attic room in their home called The Franchise, and beating her when she won’t comply with their demands for her services as a maid.
There follows newspaper scandals, police investigations resulting in insufficient evidence to lay charges, and eventually charges followed by a trial when new evidence is produced. The story is exciting and well told.
Even more, it is the interactions between the characters - their psychological temperaments that are slowly revealed through the course of the novel – that add the depths and dimensions to this novel and make it stand out.
I found it difficult to put this book down because it was so fascinating and I didn’t know for sure who was believable and who wasn’t. Then, when even that part became fairly obvious, I felt compelled to find out why and how it all came about – or if more might still be revealed.
I recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of mysteries and is interested in reading how a master in the craft goes about weaving a spell for the reader. An exceptionally satisfying read – and I loved the ending!
March 2, 2019
Josephine Tey is a Tory reactionary and a snob, but she writes like an angel. This mystery novel of the English middle class at bay under the post WW II Labor party is almost as good as her "The Daughter of Time"--and that is high praise indeed.
September 26, 2017
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 is quite wonderful & I was entertained until the end.
June 7, 2012
I really liked Brat Farrar and Miss Pym Disposes, so it's a shame I absolutely hated the next two books of Tey's I read. In the first place, this book is not a mystery. From the blurb, I expected something more ambiguous, where we wouldn't be sure which party was telling the truth and would hopefully have an interesting journey finding out. But no. Right from the start, it is made very clear that the Sharpes are the salt of the earth, and the girl accusing them, a slutty fifteen-year-old whose eyes give her away as oversexed, is a representative of all that was wrong with the changing world. We know Betty Kane was off somewhere being no better than she ought to be and dragged the Sharpes in as a rather odd choice of cover story. And that's it. The evidence to prove this turns up. Nothing unexpected happens.
What fills in the time is Tey elaborating on her theme of how the world is going to hell in a handcart and those people who have the right values need to find each other and clap each other on the back and tell each other how right they are. The English have inherited the earth because they're better than anyone else, the bleeding heart liberals are ruining everything, a conversation occurs about how some fat tart thinks the character we're supposed to approve of is cruel because she was seen hitting her dog, whereas said fat blonde with the uplift bra is ruining her dog by spoiling it, again as a symptom for wider society, blood will always out and if your mother was a bad mother and a bad wife you will be a promiscuous liar before you're sixteen for no more nuanced reason than that, and the working classes, "elevated democracy" are so stupid and unanalytical they ideally wouldn't be allowed to have opinions. It's like being cooped up with the Dursleys from Harry Potter or something. It's reactionary and incredibly self-indulgent. It's one of those books where the author is very visible, trying to waffle on at the reader rather than tell them a story, and I'm afraid I get the idea I don't care for Josephine Tey's personality and opinions. I really, really loathed it and thought it was trash.
What fills in the time is Tey elaborating on her theme of how the world is going to hell in a handcart and those people who have the right values need to find each other and clap each other on the back and tell each other how right they are. The English have inherited the earth because they're better than anyone else, the bleeding heart liberals are ruining everything, a conversation occurs about how some fat tart thinks the character we're supposed to approve of is cruel because she was seen hitting her dog, whereas said fat blonde with the uplift bra is ruining her dog by spoiling it, again as a symptom for wider society, blood will always out and if your mother was a bad mother and a bad wife you will be a promiscuous liar before you're sixteen for no more nuanced reason than that, and the working classes, "elevated democracy" are so stupid and unanalytical they ideally wouldn't be allowed to have opinions. It's like being cooped up with the Dursleys from Harry Potter or something. It's reactionary and incredibly self-indulgent. It's one of those books where the author is very visible, trying to waffle on at the reader rather than tell them a story, and I'm afraid I get the idea I don't care for Josephine Tey's personality and opinions. I really, really loathed it and thought it was trash.
November 10, 2015
Actually, this is my second time with this book after having read it eons ago, and I enjoyed it much more this time around, since I read it now with more of a focus on character and postwar issues.
The Franchise Affair is just a perfect gem of a novel, based on the real-life case of Elizabeth Canning in 1753 which you can read about here. Moving the case into contemporary times, Tey updated this story to reflect various postwar concerns, as Sarah Waters notes, looking at the "moral panics - about 'problem' children and juvenile delinquency, for example - of postwar life."
For plot you can click here; what I will say is that
The main focus here is on the young Elisabeth Kane (Betty - 15), who had gone off to a suburb of Larborough to visit an aunt over a school vacation and disappeared for four weeks, bringing an accusation of kidnapping against two women (Mrs. Sharpe and her daughter Marion) of a much higher class upon her return, and their lawyer's search for justice as well as his need to expose Betty for the liar he believes she is.
To say that The Franchise Affair is a good book does it absolutely no justice. To me, it is one of her very best works, and I've read them all. Not only does it shine in terms of plot and plot turns, but Tey is also examining postwar British society here. I can't really divulge much about Betty Kane without ruining things, although what Tey has to say about her in a cumulative way reflects the dangers someone of her sort represented to the social order of the time. The English public is also looked at here -- the tendency for tabloid readers to believe what they read and make judgments based on their impressions with no real facts strikes a chord with our own times of sleazy tabloids in print and online, as well as the non-questioning sheep who believe everything that comes out via social media. Tey's novel also reflects the tendencies of those same judgmental people to make trouble for those under media scrutiny. And then there's Robert Blair, the attorney who is "usually so placid, so lazily good-natured," but discovers that with the Sharpe case, he has a "focus of interest," changing "the pattern of his life." Used to a somewhat prescribed lifestyle "without hurry and without emotion," he finds himself actually feeling alive with this case, quite possibly for the first time. The Sharpes live in a big house that once upon a time had seen better days; now they barely scrape by without servants or money but there are still certain forms that need to be maintained for the sake of appearances. There's so much more to talk about with this novel, but well time and all of that.
The Franchise Affair can be read by mystery/crime fiction readers across the board, except perhaps for those people who trend toward kickass thriller stuff ... it is so well done that it should appeal to pretty much everyone. Tey was a gifted writer, but in this book, she's gone beyond her norm and given readers a book that should, in my opinion, be considered a classic. It is an incredibly superb book that all aficionados of British crime fiction/mysteries should read.
The Franchise Affair is just a perfect gem of a novel, based on the real-life case of Elizabeth Canning in 1753 which you can read about here. Moving the case into contemporary times, Tey updated this story to reflect various postwar concerns, as Sarah Waters notes, looking at the "moral panics - about 'problem' children and juvenile delinquency, for example - of postwar life."
For plot you can click here; what I will say is that
The main focus here is on the young Elisabeth Kane (Betty - 15), who had gone off to a suburb of Larborough to visit an aunt over a school vacation and disappeared for four weeks, bringing an accusation of kidnapping against two women (Mrs. Sharpe and her daughter Marion) of a much higher class upon her return, and their lawyer's search for justice as well as his need to expose Betty for the liar he believes she is.
To say that The Franchise Affair is a good book does it absolutely no justice. To me, it is one of her very best works, and I've read them all. Not only does it shine in terms of plot and plot turns, but Tey is also examining postwar British society here. I can't really divulge much about Betty Kane without ruining things, although what Tey has to say about her in a cumulative way reflects the dangers someone of her sort represented to the social order of the time. The English public is also looked at here -- the tendency for tabloid readers to believe what they read and make judgments based on their impressions with no real facts strikes a chord with our own times of sleazy tabloids in print and online, as well as the non-questioning sheep who believe everything that comes out via social media. Tey's novel also reflects the tendencies of those same judgmental people to make trouble for those under media scrutiny. And then there's Robert Blair, the attorney who is "usually so placid, so lazily good-natured," but discovers that with the Sharpe case, he has a "focus of interest," changing "the pattern of his life." Used to a somewhat prescribed lifestyle "without hurry and without emotion," he finds himself actually feeling alive with this case, quite possibly for the first time. The Sharpes live in a big house that once upon a time had seen better days; now they barely scrape by without servants or money but there are still certain forms that need to be maintained for the sake of appearances. There's so much more to talk about with this novel, but well time and all of that.
The Franchise Affair can be read by mystery/crime fiction readers across the board, except perhaps for those people who trend toward kickass thriller stuff ... it is so well done that it should appeal to pretty much everyone. Tey was a gifted writer, but in this book, she's gone beyond her norm and given readers a book that should, in my opinion, be considered a classic. It is an incredibly superb book that all aficionados of British crime fiction/mysteries should read.
October 2, 2020
** Spoilers below **
Aargh, I remember loving this book when I first read it as a teenager but on a re-read it's seriously and unredeemably tainted by Tey's ultra-Tory reactionary propaganda. Published in 1948, it's an almost hysterical hit back at everything that was making life oh so difficult for the upper middle classes in post-war England: no-one wants to be a servant any more, poor Miss Sharpe has to actually cook meals for herself and her mother, clear the table and wash up the dishes, such a hardship given that she doesn't work, of course, and has had a cleaner in one day a week. Even worse, though are unionised workers, lefty-liberal newspapers pressing for prison reform and support for refugees, Irish Republicans wandering around leaving bombs for no good reason in nice middle-class women's bicycle baskets, and all kinds of people who no longer know their place in the social hierarchy.
Against this background, is set the supposedly puzzling story of Betty Kane, a totem of everything that has gone wrong in Tory eyes: she's working class, she's a lying Jezebel, she looks like a schoolgirl but is picking up married men, and then has the temerity to accuse our staunch Sharpe ladies of abducting her in order to cover up her sexual adventures. We know right from the start that Betty Kane is lying because she has, er, light blue eyes, a sure sign of sexual deviancy don't you know; and we know the shabby but genteel Sharpe women are innocent because they're 'our sort of people' - they drink the right kind of sherry, they know what kinds of suits men should wear, and they don't really believe they should have to mop their own floors once a week.
On top of all the intense snobbery and misogyny, is masses of really quite disturbing fantasised violence as the Sharpes want to beat Betty Kane, their solicitor wants to strip her bare and expose her, and one of their friends reads a book on torture (it's 1948, what's he reading? something on the Nuremburg Trials?) in order to conjure up visions of what he could do to her. All the charming and intelligent people rally around the Sharpes; all the caricatures of either the bleeding heart liberals or the uneducated and stupid lower orders without the critical sense to know better, or listen to their betters, are dim enough to support Betty Kane, including the popular press which comes in for a lot of admittedly funny satire.
It's all so insidious as the Sharpe women are wonderfully drawn and eccentric, just the kind of women I'd usually like - if only they weren't also so hideously right-wing and intolerant. It's no secret that Tey was a Tory but her politics aren't usually on show - this book places them absolutely at the centre of the story and the consequent attack on progressive values makes this a very hard read today.
Aargh, I remember loving this book when I first read it as a teenager but on a re-read it's seriously and unredeemably tainted by Tey's ultra-Tory reactionary propaganda. Published in 1948, it's an almost hysterical hit back at everything that was making life oh so difficult for the upper middle classes in post-war England: no-one wants to be a servant any more, poor Miss Sharpe has to actually cook meals for herself and her mother, clear the table and wash up the dishes, such a hardship given that she doesn't work, of course, and has had a cleaner in one day a week. Even worse, though are unionised workers, lefty-liberal newspapers pressing for prison reform and support for refugees, Irish Republicans wandering around leaving bombs for no good reason in nice middle-class women's bicycle baskets, and all kinds of people who no longer know their place in the social hierarchy.
Against this background, is set the supposedly puzzling story of Betty Kane, a totem of everything that has gone wrong in Tory eyes: she's working class, she's a lying Jezebel, she looks like a schoolgirl but is picking up married men, and then has the temerity to accuse our staunch Sharpe ladies of abducting her in order to cover up her sexual adventures. We know right from the start that Betty Kane is lying because she has, er, light blue eyes, a sure sign of sexual deviancy don't you know; and we know the shabby but genteel Sharpe women are innocent because they're 'our sort of people' - they drink the right kind of sherry, they know what kinds of suits men should wear, and they don't really believe they should have to mop their own floors once a week.
On top of all the intense snobbery and misogyny, is masses of really quite disturbing fantasised violence as the Sharpes want to beat Betty Kane, their solicitor wants to strip her bare and expose her, and one of their friends reads a book on torture (it's 1948, what's he reading? something on the Nuremburg Trials?) in order to conjure up visions of what he could do to her. All the charming and intelligent people rally around the Sharpes; all the caricatures of either the bleeding heart liberals or the uneducated and stupid lower orders without the critical sense to know better, or listen to their betters, are dim enough to support Betty Kane, including the popular press which comes in for a lot of admittedly funny satire.
It's all so insidious as the Sharpe women are wonderfully drawn and eccentric, just the kind of women I'd usually like - if only they weren't also so hideously right-wing and intolerant. It's no secret that Tey was a Tory but her politics aren't usually on show - this book places them absolutely at the centre of the story and the consequent attack on progressive values makes this a very hard read today.
April 18, 2023
A clever literary mystery which I thoroughly enjoyed.
One of my favorite passages is where a lawyer, Robert Blair, tries to convince a potential client that she would do better hiring another lawyer more qualified for her type of case. The lady in question, Marion Sharpe, had reached out in desperation to Blair, the only lawyer she knew of and she had been drawn to him by his kind demeanor. However, her response to his demurring takes him off-guard:
"You know what I feel like?" She broke in. "I feel like someone drowning in a river because she can't drag herself up the bank, and instead of giving me a hand you point out that the other bank is much better to crawl out on." It made me reflect on my own attitude to people who reach out to me for help.
Robert Blair decides to take the case, which is a most interesting one whereby a young girl, Betty Kane, has accused Marion Sharpe of kidnapping her and keeping her as a slave for a month.
The character development is really good and Robert Blair in particular seems self-aware. For example, "He thought that he wanted Kevin's opinion, but what he had wanted was Kevin's backing for his own opinion." Kevin is one of Robert's old school friends and is wonderfully described "as a well-known defending counsel his knowledge of human nature was extensive, varied, and peculiar."
At first, Robert is disappointed when it appears that Kevin takes Betty Kane's side of the story, then a casual remark from Kevin indicates a turn in the tide and that really Kevin was toying with him. In exasperation, Robert almost blurts out his astonishment but then, "He rebelled against dancing any more this evening to Kevin's piping."
I enjoyed learning the details of the characters lives and in particular the routine of Robert's office where you can tell the day by the type of biscuits on the tea-tray. I loved learning the details of the detective work to unravel this intriguing case. This was truly a delightful read.
Favorite lines:
"It was amazing how ingrained the respect for property was in the English soul."
Referring to the speed that gossip travels through a community, "A sort of information-pollen blown on the wind?"
"By the time Marion's goodbye letter from London came, three weeks later, the soft folds of life in Milford were already closing round him."
new term I learned:
"rag-chewing," which means discussing.
One of my favorite passages is where a lawyer, Robert Blair, tries to convince a potential client that she would do better hiring another lawyer more qualified for her type of case. The lady in question, Marion Sharpe, had reached out in desperation to Blair, the only lawyer she knew of and she had been drawn to him by his kind demeanor. However, her response to his demurring takes him off-guard:
"You know what I feel like?" She broke in. "I feel like someone drowning in a river because she can't drag herself up the bank, and instead of giving me a hand you point out that the other bank is much better to crawl out on." It made me reflect on my own attitude to people who reach out to me for help.
Robert Blair decides to take the case, which is a most interesting one whereby a young girl, Betty Kane, has accused Marion Sharpe of kidnapping her and keeping her as a slave for a month.
The character development is really good and Robert Blair in particular seems self-aware. For example, "He thought that he wanted Kevin's opinion, but what he had wanted was Kevin's backing for his own opinion." Kevin is one of Robert's old school friends and is wonderfully described "as a well-known defending counsel his knowledge of human nature was extensive, varied, and peculiar."
At first, Robert is disappointed when it appears that Kevin takes Betty Kane's side of the story, then a casual remark from Kevin indicates a turn in the tide and that really Kevin was toying with him. In exasperation, Robert almost blurts out his astonishment but then, "He rebelled against dancing any more this evening to Kevin's piping."
I enjoyed learning the details of the characters lives and in particular the routine of Robert's office where you can tell the day by the type of biscuits on the tea-tray. I loved learning the details of the detective work to unravel this intriguing case. This was truly a delightful read.
Favorite lines:
"It was amazing how ingrained the respect for property was in the English soul."
Referring to the speed that gossip travels through a community, "A sort of information-pollen blown on the wind?"
"By the time Marion's goodbye letter from London came, three weeks later, the soft folds of life in Milford were already closing round him."
new term I learned:
"rag-chewing," which means discussing.
April 15, 2013
Tremendously good read and I never expected that from the summary - the tale of two women being framed for a brutal kidnapping seemed incredibly far-fetched to me but I'd loved Miss Pym Disposes by the same author so I thought I might as well see if the rest of her work was as good.
Well, it is, and then some. Her writing is astonishing. The book isn't thick but the amount of detail she manages to put in is quite stupendous. After reading a particularly well-written passage, I often caught myself thinking 'I feel completely different about this character than I did two pages ago, how did she do this?' A great deal of her genius has to do with knowing her characters inside out - not two characters in this are the same and they all have a very distinctive voice. We might follow Robert but I know as much about the Sharpes and Aunt Lin. This is also a masterpiece of a mystery novel - until very late in the book, the author makes sure we just don't know whether or not the Sharpes are guilty and since we spend so much time with them and they're so endearing, it's quite a feast. The investigation is realistic and suspenseful and Tey's sense of timing is impeccable - she does know when to drop us a bone and when to leave us in the dark, it's incredible. The end trial could have been a case of deus ex machina if it weren't so well crafted and it becomes not only plausible but the only solution to the plot. The end is interesting and totally unexpected like the rest of the book - the romance hinted at throughout the novel finds a very unusual open-ended conclusion and I loved that. I can't tell you how vivid and deeply witty Tey's writing is - I will not only miss Marion, Mrs Sharpe and Robert but I'll really miss The Franchise, too. You're left with a very good impression of what everything and everyone is and closing the book is like parting with friends. Amazing author - I'll never doubt her again.
Well, it is, and then some. Her writing is astonishing. The book isn't thick but the amount of detail she manages to put in is quite stupendous. After reading a particularly well-written passage, I often caught myself thinking 'I feel completely different about this character than I did two pages ago, how did she do this?' A great deal of her genius has to do with knowing her characters inside out - not two characters in this are the same and they all have a very distinctive voice. We might follow Robert but I know as much about the Sharpes and Aunt Lin. This is also a masterpiece of a mystery novel - until very late in the book, the author makes sure we just don't know whether or not the Sharpes are guilty and since we spend so much time with them and they're so endearing, it's quite a feast. The investigation is realistic and suspenseful and Tey's sense of timing is impeccable - she does know when to drop us a bone and when to leave us in the dark, it's incredible. The end trial could have been a case of deus ex machina if it weren't so well crafted and it becomes not only plausible but the only solution to the plot. The end is interesting and totally unexpected like the rest of the book - the romance hinted at throughout the novel finds a very unusual open-ended conclusion and I loved that. I can't tell you how vivid and deeply witty Tey's writing is - I will not only miss Marion, Mrs Sharpe and Robert but I'll really miss The Franchise, too. You're left with a very good impression of what everything and everyone is and closing the book is like parting with friends. Amazing author - I'll never doubt her again.
September 15, 2021
Çok uzun sürdü ama başları akmayan bir kurgu olduğu için. Kötü bir kurgu diyemem, arada ilgimi kaybetmiş olsam da sonlara doğru daha çok beğendim.
February 8, 2015
There's no subtlety in this book. Betty Kane is, we're assured, rotten to the core, a completely nasty piece of work. People who are good and decent recognize Betty Kane as a poisonous liar (because of the color and/or spacing of her eyes), people who are stupid and vacuous think she's a harmless little dear. The mystery isn't really what happened to Betty so much as how to prove that she's a liar, which is to be accomplished in court so that the entire world can see that she's a liar and they were horribly mistaken. On one hand, I liked Robert (although to be honest I liked Nevil more) and Marion and her mother; on the other hand, I didn't find the story terribly compelling. I wanted more from it, not just: people in a small country town are terrible, girls who look or talk a certain way are sluts, punish them (almost exactly this line appears in the book, by the way. Harsh!). Betty is such an empty vessel; her actions really don't make sense, and her motives or thought process or justifications are never explored. And it seemed a bit bizarre to me how casually Robert and Marion and Nevil et al could go on about how much they would love to actually torture Betty -- perhaps realistic, but I'm not sure if it was supposed to make the characters more sympathetic or was it an attempt at humor...? Perhaps it was because I could tell how things were going to end that it seemed so unnecessary, even petty, to me.
December 1, 2020
3.5
It's a bit of a stretch to call this one an Inspector Grant book, he barely gets a mention. I did enjoy it though, despite some of its problems.
It's a bit of a stretch to call this one an Inspector Grant book, he barely gets a mention. I did enjoy it though, despite some of its problems.
November 11, 2022
This is a re-read for me but it has been so long ago that I didn't remember the story very well. I like Tey's books but this one is a bit different. Although it is indicated that it is one of the Inspector Grant series, he is mentioned but does not really appear in the story.
The main character (Robert) is a local well established solicitor and partner is his family's historic firm. He receives a telephone call from a woman (Marian) who lives with her mother in a large, ugly house (The Franchise), outside of town. He does not know the woman since she lives a very secluded life and is thought of by the townspeople as "rather odd". She tells him that a young girl, who she says she does not know, has accused her and her mother of taking her captive in The Franchise, starving her, locking her in the attic, and physically mistreating her. The girl escapes and goes to the police and Marian wants help from the solicitor. Although he does not do criminal law, Robert is interested in this puzzling situation and goes to The Franchise to discuss it. And off we go!
It is a slow moving story but never boring as it holds the reader's interest and has some great characters. I have one huge complaint. The last chapter, which is only 3 pages long, should be thrown out. The book could have ended in a very satisfactory manner in the next-to-last chapter and those last few pages didn't seem to coalesce with the rest of the book. Otherwise, it is well worth reading.
The main character (Robert) is a local well established solicitor and partner is his family's historic firm. He receives a telephone call from a woman (Marian) who lives with her mother in a large, ugly house (The Franchise), outside of town. He does not know the woman since she lives a very secluded life and is thought of by the townspeople as "rather odd". She tells him that a young girl, who she says she does not know, has accused her and her mother of taking her captive in The Franchise, starving her, locking her in the attic, and physically mistreating her. The girl escapes and goes to the police and Marian wants help from the solicitor. Although he does not do criminal law, Robert is interested in this puzzling situation and goes to The Franchise to discuss it. And off we go!
It is a slow moving story but never boring as it holds the reader's interest and has some great characters. I have one huge complaint. The last chapter, which is only 3 pages long, should be thrown out. The book could have ended in a very satisfactory manner in the next-to-last chapter and those last few pages didn't seem to coalesce with the rest of the book. Otherwise, it is well worth reading.
December 3, 2022
3.5 stars rounded up
If you read this without first reading the book blurb, in a nutshell a small town British lawyer (not sure what type, but not a criminal one), Robert Blair, is called by a woman he hasn't helped to be with her when the police enter her house with a teenager who claims that she and her mother kidnapped, starved and beat her so she can show them the places she was in. Blair gets involved with the case and we see little of Inspector Grant as he works, with some assistance, on clearing the names of the Sharpe women.
One thing I have to say for Tey is that she did a fabulous job of Mrs and Miss Sharpe--how could I not root for them? This novel grew on me as it went along which is why I'm rounding it up. Betty Kane was also quite well done although we see less of her "on stage" so to speak. Overall the characters were well done and the story was very plausible as was the mystery solving, and yet it's large enough to make it entertaining. This isn't a book for shocking twists or reveals, of course, but that doesn't mean that everything is predictable, either, and the writing is quite good. I like Tey's mysteries better than Agatha Christie's even if she hasn't remained as popular.
My only mistake with Tey was to read the award winning The Daughter of Time first.
If you read this without first reading the book blurb, in a nutshell a small town British lawyer (not sure what type, but not a criminal one), Robert Blair, is called by a woman he hasn't helped to be with her when the police enter her house with a teenager who claims that she and her mother kidnapped, starved and beat her so she can show them the places she was in. Blair gets involved with the case and we see little of Inspector Grant as he works, with some assistance, on clearing the names of the Sharpe women.
One thing I have to say for Tey is that she did a fabulous job of Mrs and Miss Sharpe--how could I not root for them? This novel grew on me as it went along which is why I'm rounding it up. Betty Kane was also quite well done although we see less of her "on stage" so to speak. Overall the characters were well done and the story was very plausible as was the mystery solving, and yet it's large enough to make it entertaining. This isn't a book for shocking twists or reveals, of course, but that doesn't mean that everything is predictable, either, and the writing is quite good. I like Tey's mysteries better than Agatha Christie's even if she hasn't remained as popular.
My only mistake with Tey was to read the award winning The Daughter of Time first.
March 25, 2024
Betty Kane, una joven de quince años acusa a dos mujeres, madre e hija, de haberla secuestrado y maltratado durante varios días. Y tiene sus pruebas. Las mujeres, que viven prácticamente aisladas y con un entusiasta desinterés por las relaciones sociales, niegan airadamente la acusación. El tímido abogado Blair, aún sin dedicarse al derecho penal, considera hacerse cargo del caso. Blair es muy consciente de que sin haber comenzado el Juicio, sus clientas ya están condenadas por la Sociedad y los medios sensacionalistas. Dos mujeres solas, con problemas económicos y malhumor crónicos no pueden competir en credibilidad con esa joven e inocente rosa inglesa. Pero, vamos ¿Quién dice la verdad?
En una very British Story, Josephine Tey construye desde los cimientos una novela de misterio parsimoniosa, elegante y con un con un desenlace casi casual. Justo como no nos gusta a los amantes del misterio. Este último resultó el punto más flojo, en mi opinión. ¿Lo mejor? El agudo estilo literario y ese humor británico, que jamás nos falla.
Tres estrellitas y media.
“The trouble with you, dear, is that you think an angel of the Lord as a creature with wings, whereas he is probably a scruffy little man with a bowler hat.”
En una very British Story, Josephine Tey construye desde los cimientos una novela de misterio parsimoniosa, elegante y con un con un desenlace casi casual. Justo como no nos gusta a los amantes del misterio. Este último resultó el punto más flojo, en mi opinión. ¿Lo mejor? El agudo estilo literario y ese humor británico, que jamás nos falla.
Tres estrellitas y media.
“The trouble with you, dear, is that you think an angel of the Lord as a creature with wings, whereas he is probably a scruffy little man with a bowler hat.”
Read
September 8, 2021Pristupila sam knjizi pošteno upozorena da zgražava dobar deo današnjih čitalaca, uključujući i one koji inače baš vole Džozefinu Tej, i u startu odbacila ta upozorenja jer sam čitala već nekoliko njenih knjiga i imam solidno visok prag tolerancije na malograđanske tetke, drage su mi nekako.
Ali ovo je... pa kako da kažem. Nije detektivski roman kao što je obećano jer je od početka jasno i protagonisti advokatu i nama čitaocima da devojčica (15 god) koja tvrdi da su je kidnapovale dve lokalne tete (majka udovica i ćerka usedelica), držale na tavanu i tukle - laže kao pašče. Jedina tajna jeste gde je devojčica zapravo bila (ali od početka su svi uvereni da se bavila razvratom i da je sigurno zaslužila te batine). Veliki deo romana posvećen je zapravo intrigantnom prikazu stvaranja atmosfere progona i širenju glasina u malom mestu. Ali.
Ali.
Ovo je roman u kome takođe saznajemo:
- da su svi Irci lenji i ne vole da ustaju iz kreveta
- da Saksonci (tj. Englezi) vladaju svetom jer su dobri, tolerantni, odgovorni, pouzdani, taj sam iskaz trired čitala
- da je britanska armija jedna institucija koja ne toleriše frustraciju
- da su Kelti bedni svadljivci koji zato nikad ništa nisu postigli u životu
- varijacije na to isto ad nauseam
i još saznajemo:
- ljudi čije oči imaju jednu posebnu nijansu plave opsednuti su seksom
- jedna druga nijansa i razmaknute oči garantuju da su lažovi
- asimetrične oči odaju 100% rođene ubice (ovo je mene lično jako razgalilo)
i još saznajemo, ali ovo je spojlerično:
Dakle. Omiljena tetka malograđanka koja uvek stavi heklani milje pod kristalnu činijicu sa slatkim zato što je takav red, to je jedno. Tetka koja je uspešno internalizovala kompletnu žutu štampu svoga doba, počev od dvostrukog seksualnog morala do imperijalizma i šovinizma, i razvila vlastitu verziju frenologije, pa onda sve to sručila u jedan relativno kratak tekst, ipak je nešto drugo.
Ali ovo je... pa kako da kažem. Nije detektivski roman kao što je obećano jer je od početka jasno i protagonisti advokatu i nama čitaocima da devojčica (15 god) koja tvrdi da su je kidnapovale dve lokalne tete (majka udovica i ćerka usedelica), držale na tavanu i tukle - laže kao pašče. Jedina tajna jeste gde je devojčica zapravo bila (ali od početka su svi uvereni da se bavila razvratom i da je sigurno zaslužila te batine). Veliki deo romana posvećen je zapravo intrigantnom prikazu stvaranja atmosfere progona i širenju glasina u malom mestu. Ali.
Ali.
Ovo je roman u kome takođe saznajemo:
- da su svi Irci lenji i ne vole da ustaju iz kreveta
- da Saksonci (tj. Englezi) vladaju svetom jer su dobri, tolerantni, odgovorni, pouzdani, taj sam iskaz trired čitala
- da je britanska armija jedna institucija koja ne toleriše frustraciju
- da su Kelti bedni svadljivci koji zato nikad ništa nisu postigli u životu
- varijacije na to isto ad nauseam
i još saznajemo:
- ljudi čije oči imaju jednu posebnu nijansu plave opsednuti su seksom
- jedna druga nijansa i razmaknute oči garantuju da su lažovi
- asimetrične oči odaju 100% rođene ubice (ovo je mene lično jako razgalilo)
i još saznajemo, ali ovo je spojlerično:
Dakle. Omiljena tetka malograđanka koja uvek stavi heklani milje pod kristalnu činijicu sa slatkim zato što je takav red, to je jedno. Tetka koja je uspešno internalizovala kompletnu žutu štampu svoga doba, počev od dvostrukog seksualnog morala do imperijalizma i šovinizma, i razvila vlastitu verziju frenologije, pa onda sve to sručila u jedan relativno kratak tekst, ipak je nešto drugo.
January 19, 2021
I picked this for my book club this month, who don't read a lot of crime fiction, and they loved it. "It isn't like a mystery at all," one of them said in surprise. One loved the understated humor found on every page. Another, a retired corrections officer, says everything the character Kevin McDermott says about criminals is as true today as it was when Tey wrote the book. Another, a psychologist, agrees with me in that while Robert achieves his goal of "undressing Betty Kane in court" that she will never go hungry because she's just going to go find another victim. I talked about how Tey violates every convention of crime fiction every chance she gets and gets away with it every time. A lively discussion, a book thoroughly enjoyed by all, and now they're all off finding more Tey to read.
Note on 1/19/21--I can't believe I forgot to add this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryU2T... It's me, Val McDermid, Sujata Massey, and Barbara Peters of the Poisoned Pen Bookstore talking about Josephine Tey.
Note on 1/19/21--I can't believe I forgot to add this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryU2T... It's me, Val McDermid, Sujata Massey, and Barbara Peters of the Poisoned Pen Bookstore talking about Josephine Tey.
July 15, 2016
This book is in a genre unto itself: nationalist mystery or maybe, conservative mystery, or imperialist mystery. One implies the others I suppose. This might be a common genre (common sense tells me it should be, because it would have sold well in that age), but this is the first book from the Golden Age of Mystery I have read that is so overtly vicious to liberalism and anti-imperialism. Coming from a country that was a British colony and from a century that recognises anti-imperialism for the inevitable evolution it was, I surely was not the group this book panders to. And pander it does, with a heavy, propoganda-laced hand. The writing itself is not bad, the characters (the ones Ms Tey deems important and human enough) are well-rounded, but the book left me with a bitter taste in my mouth. That the book still sits pretty on several ‘Best Of’ lists is quite baffling to me.
Tey knew her audience. And they recognised her. This goes beyond the recognition that writing in the confines of a particular genre naturally, and most of the time positively for both parties, engenders. Here is a very political recognition. The audience and Ms Tey knew who they were, and more importantly, who they were against. The story is about a girl of 15 (Betty Kane) who has disappeared for a month, and on turning up has a very interesting story to tell. She has, for the past month, been the captive of a couple of spinsters who wanted her to be their maid. When she refused, they locked her up in their attic, and beat her black and blue. By a stroke of luck, Betty made her escape. That is the story she has to tell, but the two Ms Sharpes, the accused, say they have never met her. An interesting premise and a promising one. So many ways this could be refracted, reflected, and played with. The premise comes with at least two sides, like any healthy premise. Isn’t that the whole point of writing a mystery (or any novel for that matter): at least two sides, at least two ways to look at life? But Ms Tey wanted to write a blinkered political screed, not a novel.
Ms Tey had the ability for a less partisan and more novel-like treatment, she just didn’t have the heart. I know she had the ability because I have read her other, more famous work, ‘The Daughter of Time’. There she rails against the fallibility of narrative, of history and who gets to write it. She wants to vindicate someone long thought to be a villain by the popular psyche. Here, in this book, she rails against people who dare to have and fight for beliefs other than her own. See the irony? From the very beginning, it is assumed we know whom to root for. We are to unquestioningly be on the side of the unconventional (but not too unconventional, of course, just enough to be endearing) Sharpes. They are respectably middle-class, they drink good wine, they don’t run around sloganeering for causes Tey deems unworthy. All these are supposed to automatically, without any proof yet introduced, make them innocent of any crime. Betty Kane is the crafty, lying siren-child, also without any proof. Who a character supports, in this book, is just a way to delineate who’s on Tey's political side, and who’s on the other, grievously mistaken, side. It’s a quick, convenient way to dispose of all reasonable dissenters of the status quo.
There is not a single, intelligent, fleshed out character that expresses any doubt in favour of Betty Kane in a reasonable manner. This, you may argue, is just bad technique. It may have been if not for the fact that there are several that do come to her side are distinctly straw-men for the numerous causes Ms Tey reviles. Of the two newspapers that write for Kane, one is a tabloid and the other is a liberal publication. The owner of the latter is a bleeding heart who writes maudlin pieces about “unrest, under-privileged, backward, unfortunate.” Ms Tey exhorts her readers to not be fooled by these “euphemisms” and call them by their rightful names: “violence, the poor, mentally deficient, and prostitutes.” Sounds awfully like the arguments against “political correctness” in today’s conservative discourse. The same newspaper supports an Irishman, who conveniently for Ms Tey’s cause, put a bomb in a woman’s bicycle basket. Violence from the other side is the only kind she talks about. This so she can dismiss everything else said about this subject and others without even engaging with them! So she can conveniently say (and she does right in the next sentence) that the Irish were not a repressed minority, and they just, without any provocation, ran around putting bombs in the bicycle baskets of poor dear English ladies.
Tey knew her audience. And they recognised her. This goes beyond the recognition that writing in the confines of a particular genre naturally, and most of the time positively for both parties, engenders. Here is a very political recognition. The audience and Ms Tey knew who they were, and more importantly, who they were against. The story is about a girl of 15 (Betty Kane) who has disappeared for a month, and on turning up has a very interesting story to tell. She has, for the past month, been the captive of a couple of spinsters who wanted her to be their maid. When she refused, they locked her up in their attic, and beat her black and blue. By a stroke of luck, Betty made her escape. That is the story she has to tell, but the two Ms Sharpes, the accused, say they have never met her. An interesting premise and a promising one. So many ways this could be refracted, reflected, and played with. The premise comes with at least two sides, like any healthy premise. Isn’t that the whole point of writing a mystery (or any novel for that matter): at least two sides, at least two ways to look at life? But Ms Tey wanted to write a blinkered political screed, not a novel.
Ms Tey had the ability for a less partisan and more novel-like treatment, she just didn’t have the heart. I know she had the ability because I have read her other, more famous work, ‘The Daughter of Time’. There she rails against the fallibility of narrative, of history and who gets to write it. She wants to vindicate someone long thought to be a villain by the popular psyche. Here, in this book, she rails against people who dare to have and fight for beliefs other than her own. See the irony? From the very beginning, it is assumed we know whom to root for. We are to unquestioningly be on the side of the unconventional (but not too unconventional, of course, just enough to be endearing) Sharpes. They are respectably middle-class, they drink good wine, they don’t run around sloganeering for causes Tey deems unworthy. All these are supposed to automatically, without any proof yet introduced, make them innocent of any crime. Betty Kane is the crafty, lying siren-child, also without any proof. Who a character supports, in this book, is just a way to delineate who’s on Tey's political side, and who’s on the other, grievously mistaken, side. It’s a quick, convenient way to dispose of all reasonable dissenters of the status quo.
There is not a single, intelligent, fleshed out character that expresses any doubt in favour of Betty Kane in a reasonable manner. This, you may argue, is just bad technique. It may have been if not for the fact that there are several that do come to her side are distinctly straw-men for the numerous causes Ms Tey reviles. Of the two newspapers that write for Kane, one is a tabloid and the other is a liberal publication. The owner of the latter is a bleeding heart who writes maudlin pieces about “unrest, under-privileged, backward, unfortunate.” Ms Tey exhorts her readers to not be fooled by these “euphemisms” and call them by their rightful names: “violence, the poor, mentally deficient, and prostitutes.” Sounds awfully like the arguments against “political correctness” in today’s conservative discourse. The same newspaper supports an Irishman, who conveniently for Ms Tey’s cause, put a bomb in a woman’s bicycle basket. Violence from the other side is the only kind she talks about. This so she can dismiss everything else said about this subject and others without even engaging with them! So she can conveniently say (and she does right in the next sentence) that the Irish were not a repressed minority, and they just, without any provocation, ran around putting bombs in the bicycle baskets of poor dear English ladies.
August 21, 2022
Interesting introduction to Josephine Tey mysteries. This one is set in rural England.
The fun is in the total lack of evidence and how long it persists. The ostracizing/harassment of the Sharpe women from the town is all too familiar. The very ending is a so-cute twist.
Cozy but realistic. Recommended.
The fun is in the total lack of evidence and how long it persists. The ostracizing/harassment of the Sharpe women from the town is all too familiar. The very ending is a so-cute twist.
Cozy but realistic. Recommended.
February 18, 2009
Tey does things with her apparently simple plots that no one, but no one else can manage. A deliciously sly woman.
December 21, 2023
Un libro catalogado en el género detectivesco pero que me parece más encaja en el romántico – realista con gotas de misterio.
Es el segundo libro de la serie “Inspector Grant”, aunque este solo sale en contadas ocasiones y parece ser un personaje más pasivo que activo.
Betty Kane una joven colegiala de 15 años es mandada por sus padres adoptivos con una tía para pasar las vacaciones, cuando el tiempo se cumple y no regresa, sus padres creen que sigue con su tía, un mes después aparece golpeada y aturdida, cuando la interrogan cuenta que en una casa llamada “La hacienda”, que se encuentra a las afueras de un pueblo, dos mujeres la encerraron, la golpearon y la obligaban a remendar ropa, mientras querían convencerla para que fuera la sirvienta, en un descuido se escapó.
La anécdota es simple, contundente pero entraña un misterio que se parece mucho a la búsqueda del tesoro, ¿es imaginario el tesoro?, o ¿existe en alguna parte?
Es decir, ¿es cierto lo que cuenta Betty?
A partir de esta anécdota, se da una historia, pero aunque el misterio de la desaparición ronda siempre, ese no es lo importante, lo que destaca es la crítica pertinaz a la sociedad y todos sus vicios. Para poder disfrutar la lectura y lo que conlleva hay que desestimar nuestro poder deductivo y dejarnos arrastrar por la marea hacia donde nos quiere llevar.
Robert Blair es un abogado de testamentos, asociado en un buffet de la pequeña ciudad de Milford, vive una vida plácida, confortable, rutinaria y apacible, con una tía que se hace cargo de organizar la casa y un primo que da la nota discordante, que les permite tener un poco de pimienta en su convivencia diaria.
Robert recibe una llamada extraña, de Marion Sharps, una de las habitantes de La hacienda, ella y su madre son las acusadas de haber secuestrado a Betty Kane, le pide que acuda, pues la policía está en su casa para corroborar los dichos de la muchacha y aunque el comenta que no es su campo de especialización, ella insiste.
A partir de aquí Robert se embarca en una aventura para la que no se encuentra preparado, ya que no cuenta con los conocimientos, las relaciones ni el perfil pero si tiene algo muy grande y es voluntad, conforme la situación se complica debido a la nota que del caso hace un pasquín de chismes, la cosa escala al mayor cotilleo que ha visto la región, y de repente Marion y su mama son vistas como dos brujas que la hoguera es poco para ellas, aunque viven aisladas y a su manera nada convencional, sienten el vacío del pueblo y los fines de semana son visitadas por legiones de extraños que avientan cosas, dicen insultos y toman fotos fuera e inclusive dentro de sus terrenos.
Hay un síntoma de malestar que uno siente al saber cómo una cosa como esta puede cambiarte la vida para siempre, y tú no tener la posibilidad de evitarlo, porque independientemente de que sea verdad o mentira, la duda quedara sembrada y la gente siempre discutirá a favor y en contra.
Ante esto Robert despierta de su sopor snob y se involucra sin pensar en cualquier consecuencia, eligiendo ser el buscador del tesoro, como un caballero con una causa, porque más que rescatar a una doncella, pues Marion se aleja totalmente del arquetipo, lo que busca es la verdad, simple y llana.
El personaje de Betty Kane es magnífico, las veces que aparece logra desatar en el lector sentimientos encontrados, sembrar la duda si realmente dice la verdad o no, su descripción física y antecedentes familiares son a prueba de balas, sus padres muertos por un bombardeo, los padres adoptivos son excelentes, es una alumna aplicada, su semblante es angelical y su figura tan frágil como solo lo es, una chica de 15 años, pero en ningún momento sabemos que hay dentro de este cuerpo, no sabemos que piensa, que siente pero por otras personas vamos viendo por debajo de esa capa, y lo que reluce es sorprendente, es brutal y da miedo.
Una historia con un desarrollo que no decae en ningún momento y que hasta el final nos deja pensando sobre la complejidad humana.
Es el segundo libro de la serie “Inspector Grant”, aunque este solo sale en contadas ocasiones y parece ser un personaje más pasivo que activo.
Betty Kane una joven colegiala de 15 años es mandada por sus padres adoptivos con una tía para pasar las vacaciones, cuando el tiempo se cumple y no regresa, sus padres creen que sigue con su tía, un mes después aparece golpeada y aturdida, cuando la interrogan cuenta que en una casa llamada “La hacienda”, que se encuentra a las afueras de un pueblo, dos mujeres la encerraron, la golpearon y la obligaban a remendar ropa, mientras querían convencerla para que fuera la sirvienta, en un descuido se escapó.
La anécdota es simple, contundente pero entraña un misterio que se parece mucho a la búsqueda del tesoro, ¿es imaginario el tesoro?, o ¿existe en alguna parte?
Es decir, ¿es cierto lo que cuenta Betty?
A partir de esta anécdota, se da una historia, pero aunque el misterio de la desaparición ronda siempre, ese no es lo importante, lo que destaca es la crítica pertinaz a la sociedad y todos sus vicios. Para poder disfrutar la lectura y lo que conlleva hay que desestimar nuestro poder deductivo y dejarnos arrastrar por la marea hacia donde nos quiere llevar.
Robert Blair es un abogado de testamentos, asociado en un buffet de la pequeña ciudad de Milford, vive una vida plácida, confortable, rutinaria y apacible, con una tía que se hace cargo de organizar la casa y un primo que da la nota discordante, que les permite tener un poco de pimienta en su convivencia diaria.
Robert recibe una llamada extraña, de Marion Sharps, una de las habitantes de La hacienda, ella y su madre son las acusadas de haber secuestrado a Betty Kane, le pide que acuda, pues la policía está en su casa para corroborar los dichos de la muchacha y aunque el comenta que no es su campo de especialización, ella insiste.
A partir de aquí Robert se embarca en una aventura para la que no se encuentra preparado, ya que no cuenta con los conocimientos, las relaciones ni el perfil pero si tiene algo muy grande y es voluntad, conforme la situación se complica debido a la nota que del caso hace un pasquín de chismes, la cosa escala al mayor cotilleo que ha visto la región, y de repente Marion y su mama son vistas como dos brujas que la hoguera es poco para ellas, aunque viven aisladas y a su manera nada convencional, sienten el vacío del pueblo y los fines de semana son visitadas por legiones de extraños que avientan cosas, dicen insultos y toman fotos fuera e inclusive dentro de sus terrenos.
Hay un síntoma de malestar que uno siente al saber cómo una cosa como esta puede cambiarte la vida para siempre, y tú no tener la posibilidad de evitarlo, porque independientemente de que sea verdad o mentira, la duda quedara sembrada y la gente siempre discutirá a favor y en contra.
Ante esto Robert despierta de su sopor snob y se involucra sin pensar en cualquier consecuencia, eligiendo ser el buscador del tesoro, como un caballero con una causa, porque más que rescatar a una doncella, pues Marion se aleja totalmente del arquetipo, lo que busca es la verdad, simple y llana.
El personaje de Betty Kane es magnífico, las veces que aparece logra desatar en el lector sentimientos encontrados, sembrar la duda si realmente dice la verdad o no, su descripción física y antecedentes familiares son a prueba de balas, sus padres muertos por un bombardeo, los padres adoptivos son excelentes, es una alumna aplicada, su semblante es angelical y su figura tan frágil como solo lo es, una chica de 15 años, pero en ningún momento sabemos que hay dentro de este cuerpo, no sabemos que piensa, que siente pero por otras personas vamos viendo por debajo de esa capa, y lo que reluce es sorprendente, es brutal y da miedo.
Una historia con un desarrollo que no decae en ningún momento y que hasta el final nos deja pensando sobre la complejidad humana.
July 25, 2021
“The one ambition of my life is to discredit Betty Kane.”
The Franchise Affair is a classic mystery about a woman and her elderly mother, who live at The Franchise, a rural house, being accused of kidnapping and beating a teenaged girl, Betty Kane, who claimed the pair held her in an attic room to force her to work as their maid.
Told in the present by Robert Blair, a local solicitor, who received a frantic call from Marion Sharpe, the woman being accused, saying to come quickly as the police and Scotland Yard were at her home with the young woman, Betty, to see the attic room.
Marion and her mother insist they’ve never seen the young woman before now. Although the case is not typical for Mr. Blair’s firm, he agrees to represent them and investigate.
I chose this book because the premise sounded intriguing, I had not read anything by this author, and I wanted to sample mysteries of this time. Surprisingly, this was named one of The Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time.
So many reviewers have rated this more favorably, thought I found it a chore to read in the first half of the book. Any time the writing digressed off the plot, I grew bored. It meanders through town descriptions, store owners, and businesses that are never revisited in the story. So, I wonder what they added other than word count. About midway the focus turns toward Blair’s investigation to refute the girl’s story and exonerate the Sharpe’s of the accused crime, and then I became invested in the book.
However, as interested in the plot as I was, I was expecting Inspector Alan Grant to lead the investigation. After all, this is an Inspector Alan Grant Series, right? Well, Grant has little consequence here, and Robert Blair was acting in that role despite that he’s a solicitor who admits he knows little of investigation practices and this case isn’t even in his legal expertise.
Blair gets the job done eventually, and the plot comes together well. Some mysteries keep you guessing up until the reveal and some you know the outcome early just not the process, so the fun is understanding how it happened. This mystery would fall in the latter.
One thing I found annoying was the mention of various (fictional) crime cases throughout the book. This had no bearing on the plot, nor did it add interest to the story. It was like hearing a discussion about a topic you have no knowledge of and before you can find more, the conversation moves on. Peevish, I know.
Overall, it was an interesting and outlandish story, especially for its period. It has been adapted for film several times (1951, 1962, 1988), but I haven’t been able to locate one to see. I would recommend this to readers who like slower paced, gentle mysteries with a satisfying outcome.
The Franchise Affair is a classic mystery about a woman and her elderly mother, who live at The Franchise, a rural house, being accused of kidnapping and beating a teenaged girl, Betty Kane, who claimed the pair held her in an attic room to force her to work as their maid.
Told in the present by Robert Blair, a local solicitor, who received a frantic call from Marion Sharpe, the woman being accused, saying to come quickly as the police and Scotland Yard were at her home with the young woman, Betty, to see the attic room.
Marion and her mother insist they’ve never seen the young woman before now. Although the case is not typical for Mr. Blair’s firm, he agrees to represent them and investigate.
I chose this book because the premise sounded intriguing, I had not read anything by this author, and I wanted to sample mysteries of this time. Surprisingly, this was named one of The Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time.
So many reviewers have rated this more favorably, thought I found it a chore to read in the first half of the book. Any time the writing digressed off the plot, I grew bored. It meanders through town descriptions, store owners, and businesses that are never revisited in the story. So, I wonder what they added other than word count. About midway the focus turns toward Blair’s investigation to refute the girl’s story and exonerate the Sharpe’s of the accused crime, and then I became invested in the book.
However, as interested in the plot as I was, I was expecting Inspector Alan Grant to lead the investigation. After all, this is an Inspector Alan Grant Series, right? Well, Grant has little consequence here, and Robert Blair was acting in that role despite that he’s a solicitor who admits he knows little of investigation practices and this case isn’t even in his legal expertise.
Blair gets the job done eventually, and the plot comes together well. Some mysteries keep you guessing up until the reveal and some you know the outcome early just not the process, so the fun is understanding how it happened. This mystery would fall in the latter.
One thing I found annoying was the mention of various (fictional) crime cases throughout the book. This had no bearing on the plot, nor did it add interest to the story. It was like hearing a discussion about a topic you have no knowledge of and before you can find more, the conversation moves on. Peevish, I know.
Overall, it was an interesting and outlandish story, especially for its period. It has been adapted for film several times (1951, 1962, 1988), but I haven’t been able to locate one to see. I would recommend this to readers who like slower paced, gentle mysteries with a satisfying outcome.
May 13, 2021
Robert Blair was about to leave the office for the day (early, only 4pm!) when he answered the telephone. As he reflected later, had that call been even a minute later, everything would have been different. On the phone was Marion Sharpe of The Franchise who pleaded with him to come help, she was desperate. Inspector Grant of Scotland Yard and local Inspector Hallam were there voicing the most extraordinary criminal charges. Blair, just a wills and trusts attorney, suggested the other attorney in the small town of Milford. "No, I need you!" she pleaded. Well, at least he could go see what it was about.
I don't read many mysteries told from the side of the wrongfully accused. There is no doubt this is a wrongful accusation. As such, we don't see much of Inspector Grant, which can be my only even remotely possible negative. It is pretty much all the Sharpes and Blair, with two or three very well drawn supporting characters. In fact, I'm not so sure the supporting characters aren't better done than the Sharpes and Blair, although saying that might have me going too far out on a limb.
Reading this made me even sorrier that Josephine Tey died young. What treats did we miss?!! One of my daily reading sessions is in the evening. Only when I think I can finish in a short amount of time do I extend that reading time. I did turn out the light, but couldn't sleep and finally got up and spent another glorious couple of hours getting to the last page. I have said just recently that 5-star ratings for a mystery are few and far between. I might be stretching this one a bit, but I'll let it slip into that territory.
I don't read many mysteries told from the side of the wrongfully accused. There is no doubt this is a wrongful accusation. As such, we don't see much of Inspector Grant, which can be my only even remotely possible negative. It is pretty much all the Sharpes and Blair, with two or three very well drawn supporting characters. In fact, I'm not so sure the supporting characters aren't better done than the Sharpes and Blair, although saying that might have me going too far out on a limb.
Reading this made me even sorrier that Josephine Tey died young. What treats did we miss?!! One of my daily reading sessions is in the evening. Only when I think I can finish in a short amount of time do I extend that reading time. I did turn out the light, but couldn't sleep and finally got up and spent another glorious couple of hours getting to the last page. I have said just recently that 5-star ratings for a mystery are few and far between. I might be stretching this one a bit, but I'll let it slip into that territory.
June 17, 2022
When a middle-aged country solicitor is approached to represent two women accused of brutally kidnapping and beating a teenage girl, he's the first to admit this isn't his usual line of work. But with public opinion firmly on the girl's side and a police force unwilling to clear the women's names, he's determined to figure out what really happened.
This was a satisfying novel, more interesting for its role historically as a piece of 1940s detective fiction than for any blood and violence. Inspector Alan Grant is barely in the picture and the mystery of the alleged kidnapping is the main focus. But the characters are colorful, the plot entertaining, and the "how-dunit" aspect worth puzzling out.
This was a satisfying novel, more interesting for its role historically as a piece of 1940s detective fiction than for any blood and violence. Inspector Alan Grant is barely in the picture and the mystery of the alleged kidnapping is the main focus. But the characters are colorful, the plot entertaining, and the "how-dunit" aspect worth puzzling out.
April 2, 2017
This is most of my blog review: http://agoldoffish.wordpress.com/2012...
I read this thinking throughout "This book would make a fantastic movie. I can't believe it hasn't been adapted – it has everything." But it has been filmed, in Hollywood in 1950 only on VHS at the moment – co-starring Patrick Troughton, which means I really want it. The suspense throughout was amazingly well done – even without a literal life being at risk at any point, the stakes were quite high enough, and my involvement with the protagonists was very quickly clinched. The story is simple, and terrific: a girl of fifteen has shown up home after having been missing for weeks, black and blue and with a horrible story of having been held prisoner by two women who demanded she be their maid-servant. She describes the women, their car, and the house in exacting detail – a feat which is alarming and significant because the women are very nearly recluses, and the house is located behind walls high enough to block all but an elevated viewpoint. She can't know what she does unless the story is true – and the story can't be true – and these two women, mother and daughter, are in terrible trouble.
I find it particularly interesting reading this sort of thing so soon after reading that astrology-themed anthology (I can't believe the phrase "astrology anthology" was never used between those covers.) I mocked the concept that the entire population can be lumped together in twelve great huge masses, each mass seen as completely homogenous. But here Tey's characters do something similar, over and over: people with that particular shade of slate blue eyes are (in the current slang) players; with baby blue eyes, plausible liars – and, particularly with those eyes being set even slightly irregularly, likely to be murderers; all Irish like to sleep in of a morning. Being half Irish (I would prefer to stay up late and get up late than ever get up early – mornings were invented by a sadist) with blue eyes (denim, I guess? Not very slate-y, thank God, nor light enough to be powder) meant that my eyebrows went up almost as much as being a Leo reading that story collection. There are other generalities demonstrated in The Franchise Affair, even as the main character Robert Blair scoffs at them: class, politics, gender. At least there are some reasons behind why all (or many) people of one socio-economic bracket might behave in a specific way; being born on a certain day never, as far as I can determine, makes for a binding factor among people.
It's not too often that the protagonists' motives for solving a case are as clean and clear-cut as they are in The Franchise Affair. Yes, there is the need to clear the Franchise ladies' names. But overriding even that is the desire – no, the need to exact punishment. It isn't so much vengeance as retribution. Marion and her mother long to see the girl responsible for the hell they have gone through "undressed in public" – and that becomes Robert's life's mission. Come what may, part of what sees them all through the horror of it all is the determination that Betty Kane will be not only held accountable, she will be publicly exposed as the evil little piece of work she is.
The Franchise Affair is like an episode of Criminal Minds made personal, without any fussing about whether behavioral analysis is or isn't a science. Once the difference between what the girl is saying and what actually happened is completely understood, much of her makeup becomes very obvious, and that helps in the deduction of the rest. Interestingly, the character of Betty Kane is a sort of illustration of one side of the argument of "nature vs. nurture": her birth mother was worthless, and she takes after her mother despite a doting father and the perfect adoptive family. The woman who considers herself the girl's mother did everything right, and to all appearances had the results any mother would want: a quiet, well-adjusted, smart-though-not-brilliant, obedient girl. Appearances, however, are not only deceiving, they are very, very easily altered.
Horrifyingly, this is based on a true case: that of Elizabeth Canning, who wove a tissue of lies about being kidnapped and robbed and knocked out and locked up in 1753 … or was it true? No one knows.
Alan Grant's participation in the story is peripheral – since the reader is wholeheartedly on the side of the accused, he is the enemy, at least technically, as he is the face of law enforcement required to investigate and prosecute based on the girl's story. And if the story had been true it would be a righteous cause. But his reluctance to be on her side is masterfully shown; he has his job to do, his duty, but he is not happy with the situation whatever evidence there is.
And he's right not to like it. Once the ball is started rolling, it will not be easy to stop, and no one involved is going to come out of this unscathed … with the possible exception, if she wins, of Betty Kane.
The characters are, as is to be expected of Tey, fantastic. Robert is a wonderful unlikely hero, clawing his way out of the deep rut his life has become – and once he starts to emerge, there's no telling where he'll end up. The two Sharpe ladies, Marion and her mother, are never caricatures of a type or class or pigeonhole – they say and do and think unexpected things – in other words, they are about as close as you're going to get in a book to real human beings. The supporting cast – Robert's cousin and his aunt and his friend Bill Brough (the Patrick Troughton character) – are … I'm going to need to resort to a thesaurus soon… just wonderful.
Books restore my faith in humanity. Day to day dealings whittle away at it – ample evidence of obtuseness and ignorance and sheer stupidity erode it like crashing waves eat away at stone. But in books, wise thoughtful books with wry humor which bring deep satisfaction in the reading – these show me that even if I meet nothing but idiots from the moment I leave the house till I come home again, someone, once, even someone fifty years gone, someone has felt exactly as I do. This is the sort of book I want to write.
I read this thinking throughout "This book would make a fantastic movie. I can't believe it hasn't been adapted – it has everything." But it has been filmed, in Hollywood in 1950 only on VHS at the moment – co-starring Patrick Troughton, which means I really want it. The suspense throughout was amazingly well done – even without a literal life being at risk at any point, the stakes were quite high enough, and my involvement with the protagonists was very quickly clinched. The story is simple, and terrific: a girl of fifteen has shown up home after having been missing for weeks, black and blue and with a horrible story of having been held prisoner by two women who demanded she be their maid-servant. She describes the women, their car, and the house in exacting detail – a feat which is alarming and significant because the women are very nearly recluses, and the house is located behind walls high enough to block all but an elevated viewpoint. She can't know what she does unless the story is true – and the story can't be true – and these two women, mother and daughter, are in terrible trouble.
…It might, if you asked her, be wise not to remind Mr. Macdermott about it or he would stay up too late and she had great trouble getting him up in the morning.
"It's not the whisky," Blair said, smiling at her, "it's the Irish in him. All the Irish hate getting up."
This gave her pause on the doorstep; evidently struck by this new idea.
"I wouldn't wonder," she said. "My old man's the same, and he's Irish. It's not whisky with him, just original sin. At least that's what I always thought. But perhaps it's just his misfortune in being a Murphy."
I find it particularly interesting reading this sort of thing so soon after reading that astrology-themed anthology (I can't believe the phrase "astrology anthology" was never used between those covers.) I mocked the concept that the entire population can be lumped together in twelve great huge masses, each mass seen as completely homogenous. But here Tey's characters do something similar, over and over: people with that particular shade of slate blue eyes are (in the current slang) players; with baby blue eyes, plausible liars – and, particularly with those eyes being set even slightly irregularly, likely to be murderers; all Irish like to sleep in of a morning. Being half Irish (I would prefer to stay up late and get up late than ever get up early – mornings were invented by a sadist) with blue eyes (denim, I guess? Not very slate-y, thank God, nor light enough to be powder) meant that my eyebrows went up almost as much as being a Leo reading that story collection. There are other generalities demonstrated in The Franchise Affair, even as the main character Robert Blair scoffs at them: class, politics, gender. At least there are some reasons behind why all (or many) people of one socio-economic bracket might behave in a specific way; being born on a certain day never, as far as I can determine, makes for a binding factor among people.
It's not too often that the protagonists' motives for solving a case are as clean and clear-cut as they are in The Franchise Affair. Yes, there is the need to clear the Franchise ladies' names. But overriding even that is the desire – no, the need to exact punishment. It isn't so much vengeance as retribution. Marion and her mother long to see the girl responsible for the hell they have gone through "undressed in public" – and that becomes Robert's life's mission. Come what may, part of what sees them all through the horror of it all is the determination that Betty Kane will be not only held accountable, she will be publicly exposed as the evil little piece of work she is.
The Franchise Affair is like an episode of Criminal Minds made personal, without any fussing about whether behavioral analysis is or isn't a science. Once the difference between what the girl is saying and what actually happened is completely understood, much of her makeup becomes very obvious, and that helps in the deduction of the rest. Interestingly, the character of Betty Kane is a sort of illustration of one side of the argument of "nature vs. nurture": her birth mother was worthless, and she takes after her mother despite a doting father and the perfect adoptive family. The woman who considers herself the girl's mother did everything right, and to all appearances had the results any mother would want: a quiet, well-adjusted, smart-though-not-brilliant, obedient girl. Appearances, however, are not only deceiving, they are very, very easily altered.
Horrifyingly, this is based on a true case: that of Elizabeth Canning, who wove a tissue of lies about being kidnapped and robbed and knocked out and locked up in 1753 … or was it true? No one knows.
Alan Grant's participation in the story is peripheral – since the reader is wholeheartedly on the side of the accused, he is the enemy, at least technically, as he is the face of law enforcement required to investigate and prosecute based on the girl's story. And if the story had been true it would be a righteous cause. But his reluctance to be on her side is masterfully shown; he has his job to do, his duty, but he is not happy with the situation whatever evidence there is.
And he's right not to like it. Once the ball is started rolling, it will not be easy to stop, and no one involved is going to come out of this unscathed … with the possible exception, if she wins, of Betty Kane.
The characters are, as is to be expected of Tey, fantastic. Robert is a wonderful unlikely hero, clawing his way out of the deep rut his life has become – and once he starts to emerge, there's no telling where he'll end up. The two Sharpe ladies, Marion and her mother, are never caricatures of a type or class or pigeonhole – they say and do and think unexpected things – in other words, they are about as close as you're going to get in a book to real human beings. The supporting cast – Robert's cousin and his aunt and his friend Bill Brough (the Patrick Troughton character) – are … I'm going to need to resort to a thesaurus soon… just wonderful.
Books restore my faith in humanity. Day to day dealings whittle away at it – ample evidence of obtuseness and ignorance and sheer stupidity erode it like crashing waves eat away at stone. But in books, wise thoughtful books with wry humor which bring deep satisfaction in the reading – these show me that even if I meet nothing but idiots from the moment I leave the house till I come home again, someone, once, even someone fifty years gone, someone has felt exactly as I do. This is the sort of book I want to write.
April 22, 2017
One of the most blatantly classist novels I have ever read; it's rife with slutshaming, particularly of an underage (working-class) girl. There's also frequent use of the g-slur to describe and exotify the white, upper-class woman that protagonist Robert becomes obsessed with. I never would have picked it up if it weren’t for school; the text I’m studying, The Little Stranger draws heavily on this, and on that account, it's interesting.
Its portrayal of conservative middle-class concerns in a post-war setting draws on moral panics recognisable to this day (if considered slightly old-fashioned), particularly the idea that the changing times and increased women's independence only serve to make women 'loose'. Post-war Britain had many of its long-held perceptions of class, gender, and sexuality challenged, and Betty Kane represents all of these challenges to the social order in one neat package. The novel has a hardline conservative bias and allows no room for a sympathetic or even nuanced reaction to Betty; every 'good' character immediately sees through her and somehow senses her promiscuity, whereas those who take Betty's side are portrayed as sheeplike and possessing no critical thinking skills. Robert, Nevil, and Marion, all characters with whom we are supposed to sympathise with, fantasise repeatedly about beating or torturing Betty; Nevil even researches torture in order to better furnish his fantasy. The 'good' characters reactions to Betty approach hysterical, and yet are never examined, only portrayed as a completely justified reaction to the deception Betty has pulled off and only what Betty deserves. It is a vilely classist and sexist agenda.
Also, as a mystery novel, it failed for me, due to the aforementioned lack of nuance surrounding Betty's character. The mystery isn't figuring out whether or not Betty is telling the truth; she's immediately and unquestionably seen as a liar, and the Sharpes her unfairly persecuted victims. There is no mystery into how Betty pulls it off, either; the majority of people are won over by her butter-wouldn't-melt appearance, except those few marked as 'good' but the narrative, who somehow see through it. That's as nuanced as that gets. It is a drawn out narrative of how awful Betty is, and how the Sharpes are innocent and must be saved from the hatred of the sheeplike working and middle classes; the real mystery is where Betty was during the month she claimed to be kidnapped by the Sharpes, and that isn't mysterious for the main characters (who unquestionably accept the Sharpes' innocence and denigrate Betty at every turn). The mystery is only of interest so the Sharpes can be exonerated and Betty exposed as a lying slut before everyone who was so callous as to believe the purported victim over the purported abusers. It is really as ridiculous as all that.
Despite all this, there’s still something morbidly fascinating I find within The Franchise Affair. I flick through the pages every now and again or read a few passages if I need to hate-read, and it's cathartic, in a way.
Sarah Waters has written an excellent essay on her response to The Franchise Affair, and how it influenced her novel The Little Stranger, which also deals with the period of upheaval and social change following the end of WWII in Britain.
Its portrayal of conservative middle-class concerns in a post-war setting draws on moral panics recognisable to this day (if considered slightly old-fashioned), particularly the idea that the changing times and increased women's independence only serve to make women 'loose'. Post-war Britain had many of its long-held perceptions of class, gender, and sexuality challenged, and Betty Kane represents all of these challenges to the social order in one neat package. The novel has a hardline conservative bias and allows no room for a sympathetic or even nuanced reaction to Betty; every 'good' character immediately sees through her and somehow senses her promiscuity, whereas those who take Betty's side are portrayed as sheeplike and possessing no critical thinking skills. Robert, Nevil, and Marion, all characters with whom we are supposed to sympathise with, fantasise repeatedly about beating or torturing Betty; Nevil even researches torture in order to better furnish his fantasy. The 'good' characters reactions to Betty approach hysterical, and yet are never examined, only portrayed as a completely justified reaction to the deception Betty has pulled off and only what Betty deserves. It is a vilely classist and sexist agenda.
Also, as a mystery novel, it failed for me, due to the aforementioned lack of nuance surrounding Betty's character. The mystery isn't figuring out whether or not Betty is telling the truth; she's immediately and unquestionably seen as a liar, and the Sharpes her unfairly persecuted victims. There is no mystery into how Betty pulls it off, either; the majority of people are won over by her butter-wouldn't-melt appearance, except those few marked as 'good' but the narrative, who somehow see through it. That's as nuanced as that gets. It is a drawn out narrative of how awful Betty is, and how the Sharpes are innocent and must be saved from the hatred of the sheeplike working and middle classes; the real mystery is where Betty was during the month she claimed to be kidnapped by the Sharpes, and that isn't mysterious for the main characters (who unquestionably accept the Sharpes' innocence and denigrate Betty at every turn). The mystery is only of interest so the Sharpes can be exonerated and Betty exposed as a lying slut before everyone who was so callous as to believe the purported victim over the purported abusers. It is really as ridiculous as all that.
Despite all this, there’s still something morbidly fascinating I find within The Franchise Affair. I flick through the pages every now and again or read a few passages if I need to hate-read, and it's cathartic, in a way.
Sarah Waters has written an excellent essay on her response to The Franchise Affair, and how it influenced her novel The Little Stranger, which also deals with the period of upheaval and social change following the end of WWII in Britain.
January 12, 2019
A well written, engaging tale of small-town England where the citizens are small-minded people unafraid of the consequences if they vent their own failures in life by vilifying others.
Considering the author published this in 1949 and died a few years later, I feel that she had a pretty good handle on what life would be like in the not too distant future. Today it is the immediacy of internet smears against members of the population; in this book it was fast moving, malicious gossip and then coming by night to break windows and paint slogans on walls and worse. Back then it was a newspaper picking up the scent of scandal and crucifying innocent parties. I think she had a strong understanding of the human animal and how we would easily depart from what had been quiet and dignified living where neighbors behaved kindly.
The story told here is slow paced, almost bucolic until it isn't. A lawyer past his 30's is going through his ordinary routines, putting in his requisite duties for the firm, maintaining friendships with college friends, playing the occasional rounds of golf, being pampered by "Aunt Lin" and the family cook and being amused by outfits worn by his younger cousin, enjoying his regular tea, etc. when the phone rings. He had been thinking it was time to cut out early, but he decided to answer it. It was a call for help from a damsel in distress. That call launches him into a new world of investigation. Scotland Yard brings a young lady to make her claims of kidnapping and beating. That sets the town against the damsel and her mother and does end up in court.
Inspector Alan Grant has very little presence in this novel. There is no murder.
Considering the author published this in 1949 and died a few years later, I feel that she had a pretty good handle on what life would be like in the not too distant future. Today it is the immediacy of internet smears against members of the population; in this book it was fast moving, malicious gossip and then coming by night to break windows and paint slogans on walls and worse. Back then it was a newspaper picking up the scent of scandal and crucifying innocent parties. I think she had a strong understanding of the human animal and how we would easily depart from what had been quiet and dignified living where neighbors behaved kindly.
The story told here is slow paced, almost bucolic until it isn't. A lawyer past his 30's is going through his ordinary routines, putting in his requisite duties for the firm, maintaining friendships with college friends, playing the occasional rounds of golf, being pampered by "Aunt Lin" and the family cook and being amused by outfits worn by his younger cousin, enjoying his regular tea, etc. when the phone rings. He had been thinking it was time to cut out early, but he decided to answer it. It was a call for help from a damsel in distress. That call launches him into a new world of investigation. Scotland Yard brings a young lady to make her claims of kidnapping and beating. That sets the town against the damsel and her mother and does end up in court.
Inspector Alan Grant has very little presence in this novel. There is no murder.
August 13, 2012
Josephine Tey was recommended to me as an excellent classic mystery author, and various online reviews of her work supported that view. I chose The Franchise Affair as the first of her books to read based on the number of online references thereto and positive reviews thereof. However - it's not good; rather, it is incredibly dated and, worse, terribly lazily written (e.g., "her intelligent eyes") and plotted. Far too many things didn't ring true: the protagonist lawyer's assumption that the Sharpes were innocent; his quick infatuation with Marion; the initial lack of reaction (much less arrests) by the police; complete lack of discussion of payment aside from Marion's statement of poverty and inability to pay properly (and the lawyer's continuing representation regardless); the unquestioning willingness of the foster mother to speak with the lawyer of the supposed kidnappers; etc. etc. A classic it is not, much less one that stands the test of time. I won't be wasting my time with any of her other books.
November 25, 2021
Pues es un poco "meh" para ser un libro de Josephine Tey. Quiero decir, es entretenido y fácil de leer y tiene ciertos toques de humor y algún que otro comentario sagaz sobre la sociedad, pero estamos hablando de Josephine Tey, experta en el "thriller chill", en crear tensión con nada, en dar ese pequeño girito cuando menos te lo esperas (o mejor, cuando lo esperas totalmente) y este libro no llega al nivel habitual.
¿Es malo? No, claro que no, pero me ha parecido una obra menor. Josephine Tey habla de este caso donde unas mujeres son acusadas de un secuestro que en todo momento sabemos que no puede ser cierto y a partir de ahí, el protagonista intenta por todos los medios desacreditar a la acusadora. Y no sé, me supo a poco. Yo es que esperaba una traca final y no hubo y eso me decepcionó.
¿Es malo? No, claro que no, pero me ha parecido una obra menor. Josephine Tey habla de este caso donde unas mujeres son acusadas de un secuestro que en todo momento sabemos que no puede ser cierto y a partir de ahí, el protagonista intenta por todos los medios desacreditar a la acusadora. Y no sé, me supo a poco. Yo es que esperaba una traca final y no hubo y eso me decepcionó.
October 1, 2018
I read this book to fill the Country House Mystery square of my 2018 Halloween Bingo card.
This was my first Josephine Tey, but it will certainly not be my last. I thoroughly enjoyed this twisty little mystery. Although it is nominally part of the Alan Grant series, Grant appears in the novel as a secondary character. His thunder is stolen by a bachelor lawyer, Robert Blair.
I thought Tey did a masterful job of describing Blair—a man of a certain age who has never married, never left his small town, and never left the care of his aunt with whom he shares a home. When he receives a plaintive phone call from Marion Sharpe, asking him to come to her country home, The Franchise, he initially wishes that he’d left the office five minutes earlier and had missed the call. He is shaken out of his overly comfortable routine—into a portion of the law that he is less familiar with and dealing with people and events that he is not familiar with.
It is marvelous to watch Blair rise to the occasion, to become more aware of his community, his surroundings, and himself. His kindness to Marion & her mother was above & beyond the call of duty and I ended up liking him very much.
The twists & turns were well written, the motivations of those involved revealed, and the mystery eventually solved. Now I just want to know how Blair’s visit to Saskatchewan to his sister turned out!
This was my first Josephine Tey, but it will certainly not be my last. I thoroughly enjoyed this twisty little mystery. Although it is nominally part of the Alan Grant series, Grant appears in the novel as a secondary character. His thunder is stolen by a bachelor lawyer, Robert Blair.
I thought Tey did a masterful job of describing Blair—a man of a certain age who has never married, never left his small town, and never left the care of his aunt with whom he shares a home. When he receives a plaintive phone call from Marion Sharpe, asking him to come to her country home, The Franchise, he initially wishes that he’d left the office five minutes earlier and had missed the call. He is shaken out of his overly comfortable routine—into a portion of the law that he is less familiar with and dealing with people and events that he is not familiar with.
It is marvelous to watch Blair rise to the occasion, to become more aware of his community, his surroundings, and himself. His kindness to Marion & her mother was above & beyond the call of duty and I ended up liking him very much.
The twists & turns were well written, the motivations of those involved revealed, and the mystery eventually solved. Now I just want to know how Blair’s visit to Saskatchewan to his sister turned out!
February 14, 2024
Novela poco usual dentro del género, sin demasiada intriga, aunque van apareciendo giros que te hacen seguir leyendo.
En el pequeño pueblo de Milford una madre y una hija que viven en un solitario caserón venido a menos, son acusadas de secuestrar a una muchacha y obligarla a trabajar para ellas. Un abogado local abraza con entusiasmo la causa de probar que son inocentes.
Lo mejor es la recreación del ambiente local, so very British, con sus pubs, cafeterías y campos de golf - donde el cotilleo hace estragos impulsado por los tabloides. También el personaje de la intrigante Betty Kane, con su aspecto de inocente niña - o quizá no?
En el pequeño pueblo de Milford una madre y una hija que viven en un solitario caserón venido a menos, son acusadas de secuestrar a una muchacha y obligarla a trabajar para ellas. Un abogado local abraza con entusiasmo la causa de probar que son inocentes.
Lo mejor es la recreación del ambiente local, so very British, con sus pubs, cafeterías y campos de golf - donde el cotilleo hace estragos impulsado por los tabloides. También el personaje de la intrigante Betty Kane, con su aspecto de inocente niña - o quizá no?
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