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The fifth book in the Inspector Alan Grant series. The Daughter of Time remains Josephine Tey's most enduringly popular mystery. Can a bed-ridden 20th-century detective solve a 500-year-old crime? The murder of the young princes in the Tower of London in 1483 is the most notorious crime in English royal history. The prime suspect has long been Richard III, portrayed as a monster by everyone from early propagandists writing immediately after Richard's death to Shakespeare himself. In this, the book repeatedly voted one of the best mystery novels of all time, queen of Golden Age crime Josephine Tey tackles the question of Richard's guilt via her own celebrated detective.… (more)
LisaMaria_C: For me The Daughter of Time and The Sunne in Splendour go hand in hand. The first is the classic mystery "solving" the mystery of the Two Princes in the Tower and the second a sympathetic biographical novel of Richard III which is well-researched and moving.… (more)
Cynara: Both books are, broadly speaking, mysteries debunking the popular misconceptions around Richard III; Tey's book is entirely concerned with the subject, and Peters' does so as a sort of subplot, in addition to a more traditional mystery. I'd suggest reading Tey first, as her mystery has less to offer once you've read Peters.… (more)
Cynara: Two hospitalised detectives work through historical mysteries, investigating from their cots. Tey's is the more famous work, and will give you a good education on the ins and outs of the rehabilitation of Richard III, but to my mind, Dexter's book is better.
bookwoman247: This is a mystery involving Richard III and the two princes in the tower, and seems to have garnered a bit of respect. It's a great read on its own, and would make a great companion read to Shakespeare's Richard III.
bjappleg8: Both novels use detectives to explore historical mysteries surrounding princes banished to towers and whose fates can never be known for certain.
Interesting, but not the thrilling mystery I was expecting. My main take away is that history is truly written by the victors, and without corroboration or first hand accounts, everything should be taken with a grain of salt. Richard the third certainly got a bad rap.
“Perhaps a series of small satisfaction scattered like sequins over the texture of everyday life was of greater worth than the academic satisfaction of owning a collection of fine objects at the back of a drawer.” ( )
The mystery took second place in terms of enjoyment in comparison to reading the main character and his companions parse it out. The novel is full of just the right type of humor and wit which helped propel a rather slim novel to a single sitting read. "Not at all a bad epitaph." ( )
On my second re-read of this book, I enjoyed it at least as much as the first time through. It does tickle my funny bone, though, that the entire action of the novel can be summed up as a guy in a hospital bed sending somebody out for library books. There's literally no other action. Other than that it's just brain work. :D Since it's Josephine Tey, though, you can be assured it's top-notch writing, and (assuming you have a modicum of interest in history) you genuinely get excited as new pieces of this 400-year-old puzzle come to light. It's especially interesting since the remains of Richard III were found in 2012 and the debate about whether he was a good or bad guy continues unabated...
Original review follows: ------------------------------------- Policeman recuperating from an injury is desperate to find some mentally stimulating way to while away the days. In the past he's been intrigued by faces, and seems to have a pretty good instinct for what people's expressions reveal about their character. A friend brings him a bunch of prints from the National Portrait Gallery, including Richard III. Without knowing who it is, he theorizes on the personality behind the face and is extremely surprised to learn that it is actually one of history's most hated kings, accused of the murder of "the princes in the tower." With the help of some loaned history books, and a friend to do the more physical aspects of research, he sets out to find the truth behind this 400-year-old story. Very interesting mystery, especially for someone who likes history. Rather mentally stimulating. I believe this book has been listed as one of the greats of its genre. ( )
According to the Crime Writer's Association, this is the NUMBER ONE CRIME BOOK of all time. Quite a feat, huh? A fascinating read with loads of history on the War of the Roses. I've never read a mystery where the “detective“ tries to solve a 400+ year-old mystery as to whether or not Richard III was responsible for having his two nephews killed. Lots of rabbit-holing on this one, which I loved! Might have to read more about Mr. Alan Grant. ( )
"Truth is the daughter of time." (Sir Francis Bacon, Novum Organum, Book I, 84)
Dedication
First words
Grant lay on his high white cot and stared at the ceiling.
Quotations
You don't like to think of a man you've known and admired flung stripped and dangling across a pony like a dead animal.
A frisson of horror may go down one's spine at wholesale destruction but one's heart stays unmoved. A thousand people drowned in floods in China are news: a solitary child drowned in a pond is tragedy.
It was, moreover, the almost-respectable form of historical fiction which is merely history-with-conversation, so to speak. An imaginative biography rather than an imagined story.
Last words
"Funny," she said. "When you look at it for a little it's really quite a nice face, isn't it?"
The fifth book in the Inspector Alan Grant series. The Daughter of Time remains Josephine Tey's most enduringly popular mystery. Can a bed-ridden 20th-century detective solve a 500-year-old crime? The murder of the young princes in the Tower of London in 1483 is the most notorious crime in English royal history. The prime suspect has long been Richard III, portrayed as a monster by everyone from early propagandists writing immediately after Richard's death to Shakespeare himself. In this, the book repeatedly voted one of the best mystery novels of all time, queen of Golden Age crime Josephine Tey tackles the question of Richard's guilt via her own celebrated detective.
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Book description
The Daughter of Time, Josephine Tey's best-known work, is still widely admired not just as a defense of Richard III of England but also as a study of the nature and practice of history writing itself. It's also an entertaining and clever novel that was named #1 on the list of "Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time" by the Crime Writers' Association.
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Scotland Yard Inspector Alan Grant lies in a hospital bed with a broken leg. To alleviate his boredom, a friend brings him a pile of pictures: photographs, prints, engravings, and clippings. Among the more engrossing images is the portrait of King Richard III. Studying the benign face, he asks himself how such a sensitive-appearing soul could have been the infamous murderer of his own nephews. With the help of the British Museum and an American scholar, Grant reconsiders 500-year-old evidence pertaining to one of the most intriguing murder mysteries of all time. Josephine Tey's answer to who really killed the two princes in the Tower of London has provoked controversy ever since its publication in 1951.
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Inspector Alan Grant of Scotland Yard, recuperating from a broken leg, becomes fascinated with a contemporary portrait of Richard III that bears no resemblance to the Wicked Uncle of history. Could such a sensitive, noble face actually belong to one of the world's most heinous villains — a venomous hunchback who may have killed his brother's children to make his crown secure? Or could Richard have been the victim, turned into a monster by the usurpers of England's throne? Grant determines to find out once and for all, with the help of the British Museum and an American scholar, what kind of man Richard Plantagenet really was and who killed the Little Princes in the Tower.
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Scotland Yard Inspector Alan Grant is bored out of his mind. Due to an unfortunate fall and multiple injuries he is bed ridden in the hospital and the long healing process and subsequent inaction are driving him crazy. A friend, knowing of the Inspector's passion for faces, brings him a portfolio of historical portraits thinking to distract him. She hopes he will involve himself in solving a "classic" historical mystery, since he seems to know all the facts of the Scotland Yard cases by heart. Grant homes in on the portrait of King Richard III, the supposedly wicked uncle who murdered his nephews, the boy princes, in the London's Tower. He remembers how Richard was portrayed in elementary school history and certainly recalls Shakespeare's vivid portrait of the evil hunchbacked king. However, try as he may, Grant cannot reconcile the face in the painting with that of a tyrannical children's' murderer and usurper of England's throne. He sees conscience and integrity in the face of the painting's subject. And his curiosity is aroused for the first time since his accident.
Grant asks for historical books and reads everything he can get his hands on. He finally comes into contact with a young research student from America who also becomes caught-up in the hypothesis that Richard III was framed. Author Josephine Tey, with the skill of the best in Scotland Yard, conducts an objective investigation of a centuries-old crime. She evenly portrays both side of the story, Richard III's and King Henry VII's (the other suspect), with all its twists and turns, reveals compelling evidence and comes to an amazing conclusion.
The reader is literally taken back in time to examine the accusations, testimonies and material relating to the death of Richard's brother, King Edward IV in 1483, the known history of his sons, Princes Edward and Richard after their father's death and their mysterious disappearance, the behavior of Edward's widow and children, including his eldest daughter Elizabeth, who becomes Henry's bride, Queen and mother to Henry VIII. Tey provides an extraordinarily well researched profile of Richard III, pieced together directly from historical documents, and another profile of Henry Tudor. The author also examines the 1934 exhumation of the two children who were first dug up in 1674. Motives are examined and finally, conclusions are drawn, proving, once again, that history is written by winners.
Haiku summary
Who killed the Princes in the Tower? Inspector Grant investigates. (passion4reading)
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NOVEMBER READ - NO SPOILERS - Daughter of Time
Wikipedia in English (1)
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“Perhaps a series of small satisfaction scattered like sequins over the texture of everyday life was of greater worth than the academic satisfaction of owning a collection of fine objects at the back of a drawer.” (