The Daughter of Time (1951)

I tried this one in audio and it felt too convoluted. It was interesting enough, but too much information. I should try reading it instead.

⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
BOOK REVIEW: My primary motivation for reading Josephine Tey’s mystery “Daughter of Time” was because it has been dubbed the greatest historical fiction/mystery of all time. I wanted to determine if the accolade was appropriate. I give it a 3.5 because it lacks any thrilling or apprehensive excitement that other books do. The books main detective is Alan Grant is in hospital laid up with a broken leg for the duration of the novel. Alan Grant is bored to tears when a friend brings him a series of pictures featuring faces of well known people from history. After some consideration Grant settles upon a picture of Richard III and the mystery of who killed the two little prince boys in the Tower. Grant think Richard’s reputation as the monster murderer of these boys is wrong because his face—just isn’t the face of a cruel murderer. Instead, Grant thinks Richard has a conscientious face. The face of a worry worn authoritarian, perhaps a judge. The book takes the reader through Grant’s research when university researcher a Mr. Carradine actually joins in the investigation. Grant directs Carradine’s research. Together they present a truly solid case, exonerating Richard III and logically implicating another person. And, that is the beauty of this book. Tey’s infallible logic; has influenced and changed real historians views, how they teach it, how they write about it. The reasoning presented in a work of fiction is so remarkable—it actually changed the course of history itself. Is it the greatest historical fictional mystery ever written? I think I need to read more of them to offer a fair opinion of that but, if you like to solve a mystery with the author, then you’ll enjoy this book very much. @KatoJustus4 ( )

An engaging mystery that captures the excitement of discovering that real history is much more complicated -- and sometimes much different -- than the stories you get as a child. Tey's pro-Richard case influenced a generation of historians.

But I'm reading this 60 years later, and have seen the way the excitement of historical revisionism can be used to support anti-Semitism and other insanities. Inspector Grant's frenzy and obsession reminds me too much of the Holocaust denier in Erol Morris's "Mr. Death" for me to fully engage the way Tey wished. ( )

A very convincing case is developed against common view (put about by the Tudors and Shakespeare ) that Richard III was not the original wicked uncle we all believed but a really decent chap living in difficult times. Well told and particularly relevant after recent events centred on the Leicester car park. Not sure how well the theory stands up today several decades after the book was written but I would like to find out. Very enjoyable. ( )

An excellent look at Richard lll, based on contemporary historical documents rather than Shakespeare's villain. ( )