Tey-time

     My introduction to the crime novels of Josephine Tey has been an excellent and highly satisfying one. The Franchise Affair is tightly-plotted and elegantly written with a sharp eye for social observation and here and there a sharpish tongue for comment, too!

     Its hero is Robert Blair, small town solicitor of delightfully old-fashioned habits ("Miss Tuff came in with her notebook and her dazzling white peter-pan collar, and Robert's normal day had begun"), who finds himself in the role of amateur sleuth when two local ladies are accused of the abduction and mistreatment of a young girl. The girl's statement consists of an accurate description of the women's house, The Franchise, but Mrs. and Miss Sharpe maintain it is a complete fabrication and they have never set eyes on the girl before. When a rag of a newspaper takes up the case, the "trial by tabloid" changes the situation dramatically and the power of the press is seen in its worst light.

    Josephine Tey is skilled at seasoning the settled routine of comfortable domesticity and unhurried business with the bitter herb of the ill-intentioned and the malicious. From Robert, who believes in "the ultimate triumph of Good", to others who are less than wholesome, she creates a piquant mixture which holds the reader's attention throughout. Her 1940s middle-England world is fully realised and seductively simple, so that when what is portrayed as a 'natural order' is threatened by those with baser motives, the result is a keen sympathy for the wronged and a desire for justice to be done. Happily, Miss Tey does not disappoint, and I shall definitely be reading more of her.

Comments

[Becca]

I am so glad you like Tey! She is an absolutely intriguing author.

[Margaret Powling]

Tey now on my Wish list!

[lindsay]

She has the old fashioned and often despised virtues of writing elegant English and not presenting her characters as paragons or devils. Do read the Daughter of Time.

[Deirdre]

You sold me! Another book for my list. Wonderful review of a writer I hope to get know better. Thank you!

[Juxtabook]

I am really glad that you enjoyed it. As well as The Daughter of Time that others recommend, I would also recommend Brat Farrar. It has a slightly more romanticised plot than some of her others but as usual her characters and prose are excellent. You might remember it as it was televised in the 80s.

[Elaine]

Oh I loved this book when I ead it many years ago and you have now made me want to read it again. I also adored Brat Farrer

[Elaine]

I posted in April that you had made me want to read the book again and I have and loved it all over again and see that you have visited my review as well as mine yours. I now feel a reread of Brat Farrar coming on