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The Daughter of Time (Alan Grant, Bk 5)
The Daughter of Time - Alan Grant, Bk 5
Author: Josephine Tey
While in hospital, Inspector Grant’s professional curiosity is soon aroused. In a portrait of Richard III, the hunchbacked monster of nursery stories and history books, he finds a face that refuses to fit its reputation. But how, after four hundred years, can a bedridden policeman uncover the truth about the murder of the Princes in the To...  more »
ISBN-13: 9780671808372
ISBN-10: 0671808370
Publication Date: 1/1/1977
Pages: 207
Rating:
  • Currently 4.7/5 Stars.
 6

4.7 stars, based on 6 ratings
Publisher: Pocket
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

reviewed The Daughter of Time (Alan Grant, Bk 5) on + 330 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 6
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.
reviewed The Daughter of Time (Alan Grant, Bk 5) on + 25 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 5
Loved this interesting take on Richard III's life and legacy. It's a modern-day detective that looks back on the mystery of Richard's life and what may have happened to tarnish his reputation.

Quick read.
reviewed The Daughter of Time (Alan Grant, Bk 5) on + 3 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
Detective tale about a Miss Marple-ish character who, housebound while nursing an injury, sets out to find out if Richard III is really the "wicked uncle" that history has painted - and exactly who murdered the Princes in the Tower. A great read!
reviewed The Daughter of Time (Alan Grant, Bk 5) on + 29 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
This book was one of the best I have ever read. Although it is fiction, it delves into an ancient mystery and uses history. I often wondered how a man like King Richard III changed so suddenly in his beliefs and morals to "murder" his 2 nephews. This book opened my mind to the possibility, and I believe truth, that the murder actually belongs to King Henry VII. Highly recommended!
LibraryEm42 avatar reviewed The Daughter of Time (Alan Grant, Bk 5) on + 26 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
This book is an example of what I mean when I tell people history is like a detective story: you don't have all the information, your witnesses might be mistaken or lying (and/or dead), you might not have a body, and you can probably piece together several plausible explanations of whodunnit.

In this book, a Scotland Yard detective who's stuck in the hospital starts investigating Richard III, and discovers that the one-sentence accounts his old schoolbooks gave (basically, "Richard was bad and killed his brother and the princes") are covering up a much more complicated story of missing information, bias, and propaganda. A lot of textbook-style history is like this, which is a shame, because it's so much more interesting when you don't try to force it into a simplistic, pre-determined story with no room for doubt or alternate interpretations!

For anyone who wants to know more about the history and debates over Richard III, you can check out the non-fiction account in "Royal Blood: Richard III and the Mystery of the Princes" by Bertram Fields.
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duplica123 avatar reviewed The Daughter of Time (Alan Grant, Bk 5) on + 150 more book reviews
This story really stuck with me! I loved the thought process Inspector Grant uses to reach his conclusion about the famous mystery - what happened to the princes in the tower? Did Richard III really have them killed in cold blood?

I read this book in high school. It was recommended to me by my mother who loves mysteries. I'm usually pretty indifferent to them, but this was a neat blend of historical fiction and a who-dun-it. Years later I went to London and walked around the Tower and went to the Portrait Gallery and saw the painting which inspired Inspector Grant. It was one of the coolest moments for me!

I highly recommend this book to mystery lovers as well as people who enjoy history.
reviewed The Daughter of Time (Alan Grant, Bk 5) on + 201 more book reviews
Josephine Tey was, of course, a master writer of detective stories, but this one is my favorite. Her hero, Inspector Grant, is laid up in the hospital, and relieves his boredom by figuring out whether King Richard III was really the monster history (and Shakespeare)portrayed him and who really killed the Princes in the Tower. In view of the recent discovery of Richard's long-lost grave, readers might find this fictional book on a historical question more relevant than pure escape literature.
reviewed The Daughter of Time (Alan Grant, Bk 5) on + 29 more book reviews
I first read this book years ago, when I was devouring British detective fiction. Loved it then, love it even more now. This is the next to last in the series of five about Inspector Grant. Still, Daughter of Time is certainly the best of the lot intellectually, as the lead character is in a hospital bed and the detective work is about researching the character of Richard III, who has come down through the ages as a kind of monster: ruthless, deformed, nasty. Even Shakespeare tok up the notion of his being a hunchback with a withered arm and a huge grudge who became king by being ruthless and killing even his adolescent nephews. Is that all true? Inspector Grant spends his convalescence trying to find out. If you like this, I also recommend the last of her series: The Singing Sands (1952) which is, like this, less go-get-the-culprit detective fiction, and more character study.
reviewed The Daughter of Time (Alan Grant, Bk 5) on + 2 more book reviews
You are not a mystery buff, really, if you cannot say you've read Tey's "The Daughter of Time" and Agatha Christie's "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd." Can anyone suggest other titles of this extraordinary level?
cheryln52 avatar reviewed The Daughter of Time (Alan Grant, Bk 5) on + 11 more book reviews
Really enjoyed it, and learned a little about history, too.


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