The Daughter of Time, by Josephine Tey

The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


     The Daughter of Time rekindled my natural desire to read after a period where a terrible book turned me off reading the way a bad, sick hangover turns you off alcohol. I saw it at the top of the list of Best Crime Novels, read the abstract, and was thoroughly interested. Richard III is one of the few Shakespeare plays I haven't read or seen, and somehow my school didn't cover much early English history, so I came to the story of the last of the Plantagenets free from any predispositions. I don't know if that would be a plus or a minus to most readers, but I was glad it was the case.
     Actually, I was glad about most aspects of this book, and reading it. It is a fast-paced, elegantly simple story; with bright, likable, well-formed characters. It is funny and engrossing, friendly and fascinating. At first I was a little put off by Inspector Grant's personality: dismissing all his gifted books as too silly or formulaic and calling his attentive nurses The Midget and The Amazon, but the truth is it makes him real. He's fussy and impatient, but without a little of that character he wouldn't be as fun to follow into his passions.
     It's really the characterizations like Grant that elevate a simple opinion piece on Revisionist Richard III to a gem of a detective novel. Like Rear Window, it takes place in a single room of convalescence, so the action is all in conversations or thoughts of history. But once mystery piques Grant's interest, you never feel as though you are in one room. You are transported not only by the saga of the Plantagenets, but by varied visitors---the extravagant but caring Marta; quiet, wise Matron; the mussed, musing, unexpected heir Brent Carradine.
     But the mystery is the story of Richard, his nephews, and the complicated relationships between ever-entwining branches of the rest of the family and associated aristocrats. I am a lover of history, but this book really puts you there and sets out the story in a way you could never forget. I've heard people complain about the difficulty of remembering the line of English rulers, but after reading The Daughter of Time, I know I'll never forget at least this section of it (Edward III through Elizabeth I, though the focus here is of course Edward IV through Henry VII). Even as a history lover, I recognize it's a rare gift to lay out such a complicated, distant set of events in a way that provokes excitement and anticipation. Josephine Tey does it with aplomb. I was terribly sad to see she died rather young and therefore wrote relatively few books (under this and her other pseudonym, Gordon Daviot). I wanted to read another of her books immediately, but decided to pace myself, especially with the Inspector Grant set of six.
     Luckily, I also gained an extra subject to read about. The story of the end of the Plantagenets captured my imagination well enough that I'm interested in reading several more (nonfiction) books about it as well. I know what Inspector Grant and Josephine Tey consider truth, and that inspires me to find what I do. I'll likely reread this book again someday, and look forward to revisiting the characters as well as the mystery from a more informed mindset. The only reason I give four stars instead of five is a tiny bit too much of Grant and Carradine patting each other on the back and yes-manning each other near the end. I may revise to five, depending on how long I keep looking back on the book with the fondness I have been.



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