The Franchise Affair

by Josephine Tey

Paperback, 288 pages

Published Aug. 31, 2009 by Arrow.

ISBN:: 978-0-09-953683-3
OCLC Number:: 321014466

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, …

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ceoln reviewed Franchise Affair by Josephine Tey by Josephine Tey

Review of 'Franchise Affair by Josephine Tey' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

An absolute gem

As Tey does so well, this is a novel that just happens to be based around a crime, sort of, but is really about the characters, and character, and people, and even England.

Tey's asides about the relationship between criminal behaviour and genetics, and poverty and circumstances, and uninformed bleeding hearts, and women in the sex trade, come off as somewhat benighted in 2017, but it's subtle, and maybe things were different then. I was able to forgive it, at least.

Notably, although this is nominally the third or something of the Inspector Allen Grant books, Grant himself appears only as a minor background character, without as far as I can recall a single line of dialogue. But the protagonist is still deliciously Tey and ever so English, and Tey's prose is as sparkling and soothing as ever.