The Franchise Affair is a miracle of a book. It is a mystery about with two older women accused of abducting and harming a sixteen year-old girl which turns on their being proved innocent of a crime of which they did not commit, but have absolutely no evidence that can prove this. The lawyer in the case, Robert Blair, reluctantly becomes detective because he believes them. How this impossible situation is resolved is beautifully told by the author. It is both an intelligent and immensely enjoyable mystery. ( )

Oh, Miss Tey: why has it taken me so many years of my life to discover you? Like pomegranate, the (mumble) years I have spent to date without your acquaintance seem a poor thing now I know what I have missed.

Fans of murder mysteries should read this. Fans of period drama should read this. Fans of social comedy should read this. Fans of class-based drama should read this. Hell, everyone should read this because it's wonderful. I don't think I have ever read a book that so perfectly illustrates Douglas Coupland's point about the sterile feeling that creeps over books that try to seem "timeless". This book is crammed with period detail, and could belong to no other decade, but the psychology at the heart of it has hardly changed over thousands of years - it's just the cutlery has got fancier.

Robert Blair is a country lawyer unexpectedly called to the aid of the mysterious Marion Sharpe. Resident in the gloomy and isolated country house known as the Franchise with her elderly mother, she has been accused of kidnapping and beating a 15 year-old girl, and is about to be interviewed by Scotland Yard. Marion claims never to have seen Betty Kane before in her life - but Betty can describe the view from her attic window, the suitcases in her cupboard, the carpeting on the stairs and the pans in the kitchen. The Franchise Affair unpicks the knot of who is telling the truth and who is lying, examining as it goes along the frailty and importance of reputation, and the egoism of criminality, not forgetting to throw in a generous dose of poking fun at tabloid newspapers.

Marvellous, marvellous book. Go, read it now.

See also: http://www.flossieteacake.net/2009/11... ( )

Oldfashioned mystery. refreshing but lets one realize how much daily life has changed since World War II ( )

The Franchise Affair is a highly-readable crime novel that’s not a murder mystery. The set-up is an odd one: a reclusive but respectable middle-aged woman and her elderly mother have been accused of kidnapping a teenaged girl and trying to compel her to become their housemaid. The story is based on a real historical case in 18th-century England.

The ‘mystery’ here is thus not whodunit, but how did the pert, appealing accuser manage to assemble so many circumstantial facts supporting her bogus story (note that there’s no question whatever that she’s making it all up). A gentle and frankly dull country lawyer, Robert Blair, takes up two defendants’ case and the challenge of trying to crack the girl’s story.

What’s amazing here is Tey’s ability to hold your interest even though you know pretty much exactly where things stand right from the outset of the story. She accomplishes this via strong characterization, and supremely good description and detail of the story’s setting, i.e. an English village in the 1940s. The stresses and strains of that difficult time are woven deeply into the fabric of the story.

Some people might find off-putting Tey’s clear sympathy for the impoverished gentility – and her equally clear antipathy toward the scheming working-class malefactor. I didn’t. It’s actually refreshing to read a story in which the ‘underdog’ really is given the back-handed dignity of being held accountable for moral choices. So many contemporary crime stories work so very hard to do the opposite. ( )

This has become one of my favorite mysteries of all time.

A young girl named Betty Kane accuses a mysterious middle aged woman and her mother of beating and kidnapping her. Everyone believes the sweet young girl, except the local lawyer Robert Blair. Blair is determined to prove the girl a liar, and his quest turns his quiet predictable life upside down.

This is an Alan Grant mystery, but he is rarely mentioned. When he is mentioned, he is presented as 'the bad guy' because he is prosecuting the case. There is also no murder. How unusual! This non-formulaic approach is one reason I loved the book. Every character is this book is endearing (well, almost every character). I could see them as I read, and they left me wanting more.

I stayed up way past bedtime because I could not put the book down. Riveting stuff. ( )