Josephine Tey is often referred to as the mystery writer for people who don't like mysteries. Her skills at character development and mood setting, and her tendency to focus on themes not usually touched upon by mystery writers, have earned her a vast and appreciative audience. In Daughter of Time, Tey focuses on the legend of Richard III, the evil hunchback of British history accused of murdering his young nephews. While at a London hospital recuperating from a fall, Inspector Alan Grant becomes fascinated by a portrait of King Richard. A student of human faces, Grant cannot believe that the man in the picture would kill his own nephews. With an American researcher's help, Grant delves into his country's history to discover just what kind of man Richard Plantagenet was and who really killed the little princes.
From AudioFile
While Inspector Grant of Scotland Yard looks for a way to make his convalescence in a hospital bed less tedious, his eye falls on a portrait of Richard III. Grant's schoolboy memory of the king who murdered his two nephews suddenly sparks another line of reasoning for the misdeed, and the reader is treated to a new answer to the killings in the Tower. All of the action delights Derek Jacobi, who reads as if he is sitting solo on a stage, speaking to an audience that has come to hear him solve this mystery. He talks to this audience. He talks to the other characters in the book. It is a complete performance. The publisher has enclosed a card with a listing of several generations of Richards and Henrys and Edwards, which will be helpful to listeners who are not driving as they listen. J.P. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
From 500 Great Books by Women; review by Vickie Sears
Since its publication in 1951, Josephine Tey's insightful mystery, The Daughter of Time has become a major resource on the death of the nephews of Richard III. It opens with a bored Detective Alan Grant, stuck in his hospital bed with a wounded hip and broken leg. His actress-friend, Marta Hallard, notices he is not reading and brings him some portraits to occupy his mind. Alan Grant becomes transfixed with the face of Richard III, which "had that incommunicable, that indescribable look that childhood suffering leaves behind." Thus begins Grant's travel through time to solve a five-hundred-year-old mystery: did Richard III kill his two nephews and have them buried in the Tower of London in order to eliminate all possible contenders for the throne? Initially Grant drafts all his friends to help him research; finally he hires Mr. Carradine as a real research assistant. Real life history is related to the audience through the reading of the characters, especially the frustrated curmudgeon, Detective Grant. Due to the detective's confinement, there is far less of the fast-paced action one often associates with mysteries, but the dialogue and interplay between Grant and Carradine is crisp and wonderful, and the conclusion is fascinating. -- For great reviews of books for girls, check out Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14.
Review
Boston Sunday Globe The unalloyed pleasure of watching a really cultivated mind in action! Buy and cherish!
Daughter of Time ANNOTATION
In one of Tey's bestselling mystery novels ever, Scotland Yard Inspector Alan Grant is intrigued by a portrait of Richard III. Could such a sensitive face actually belong to one of history's most heinous villains--a king who killed his brother's children to secure his crown? Grant determines to find out once and for all what kind of man Richard was and who in fact killed the princes in the tower.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
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.
FROM THE CRITICS
New York Times
One of the best mysteries of all time.
Boston Sunday Globe
The unalloyed pleasure of watching a really cultivated mind in action! Buy and cherish!
Rochelle O'Gorman
Audio Partners has published an extensive list of unabridged audiobooks under the Mystery Masters series. This one is a digitally remastered version of Tey's riveting, intellectual mystery. Scotland Yard's Inspector Grant is confined to a hospital bed with a broken leg and wounded hip. With little to occupy his mind, he becomes engrossed with a portrait of Richard III, the supposedly evil English monarch who murdered his two young nephews to keep them from the crown. Grant is not so sure. Using historical text, conjecture and hearsay, he pieces together a different scenario than the one most generally accepted regarding Richard Plantagenet and the two princes in the tower. Jacobi is an exciting reader well matched to the material. Production values, unfortunately, are not what they could be. Jacobi is one of those actors who makes noises with his mouth, so we can sometimes hear him swallowing. Ambient noise is too readily heard when chapters end, and they often end too abruptly.
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