The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey

I have to admit my ignorance.  Until now I had never heard of Josephine Tey or any of her books.  I was surprised to find out that The Daughter of Time was voted #1 on the list of the 100 Top Crime Novels of All Time by the U.K. Crime Writers Association, and #4 on a similar list compiled by the Mystery Writers of America.

I am not widely read in crime fiction, so I cannot really comment on the relative merits of this book compared with hundreds of others in the genre.  I can say it is a cracking good read.  The Daughter of Time is a modern cold case investigation into a 500 year old mystery regarding Richard III.

Although popular in his own time, Richard III has gone down in history as a villain who possibly murdered his wife, one of his brothers, his two nephews and Henry VI.  How much of this is fact, and how much of it is Tudor propaganda?  Did he really murder his nephews - Edward V and Richard of York - better known as the Princes in the Tower?  These are the questions The Daughter of Time seeks to answer. 

The novel is set shortly after the Second World War.  Inspector Alan Grant of Scotland Yard has been severely injured in a fall and is now bed-ridden in hospital.  A friend suggests he should try to solve a historical mystery in order to exercise his analytic skills and to stave off boredom.  Grant finally decides on Richard III and the Princes in the Tower, a subject with which he is only slightly acquainted.  Through his friends and colleagues who come to visit him, Grant begins to amass evidence about the case and comes to a startling conclusion.

The Daughter of Time is remarkable in several ways.  First, all the action takes place in the one hospital room - Grant can't get out of bed.  Second, the narrative consists mostly of conversations, inner dialogue and snippets from books and letters.  Despite these limitations, the story is fresh and gripping.  Of necessity, there is a lot of exposition and analysis of history, but this is so skillfully woven into the dialogue between sharp-witted and likeable characters that it avoids seeming like a history lesson  Instead, the story comes across as an instructive and intriguing unravelling of a true mystery. No opium ink on a leaden page here: Tey is a great stylist who makes the reader want to find out what happens next at every turn.

I place The Daughter of Time at the top of my meagre list of mystery novels, secure in the knowledge that the U.K. Crime Writers Association would approve of my choice.