The Daughter of Time

Inspector Alan Grant, Book 5

De: Josephine Tey

Narrado por: Karen Cass

Book #5 in the Inspector Alan Grant series.

"Truth is not always the same as the majority opinion.”

The Daughter of Time, the fifth book in Josephine Tey’s series of mid-twentieth century detective novels featuring Inspector Alan Grant, remains the author’s most popular mystery and is widely regarded as a significant work within the genre, for both its innovative approach and the themes it explores.

Richard III reigned for only two years, and for centuries has been vilified as the hunch-backed murderer of his nephews, the Princes in the Tower. Inspector Alan Grant of Scotland Yard, recuperating from a broken leg, becomes fascinated with a contemporary portrait of Richard that bears no resemblance to the Wicked Uncle of history. Could such a sensitive, noble face actually belong to one of the world's most heinous villains – or was he the victim of one of the most insidious plots in history?

Set against the backdrop of historical events and infused with psychological insight, The Daughter of Time explores the way history is constructed and how certain version of events come to be widely accepted as truth, even when there’s no evidence or logical plausibility to support it. Josephine Tey's masterful blend of mystery and intellectual inquiry invites a reconsideration of the legends of the past—proving that sometimes, the real mysteries lie not in the crime itself, but in the stories we tell about it.

Josephine Tey (1896-1952) was a renowned author and one of the most celebrated figures in detective fiction. Tey initially pursued a career in theatre, writing plays before shifting her focus to novels, and her writing is characterised by psychological depth, strong character development, and a subversion of traditional crime fiction norms. Her most notable works include The Daughter of Time, Brat Farrar, and The Franchise Affair, and despite her relatively small output, her influence is significant, inspiring future generations of mystery writers.

In 2015, Val McDermid argued that Tey "cracked open the door" for later writers such as Patricia Highsmith and Ruth Rendell to explore the darker side of humanity, creating a bridge between the Golden Age of Detective Fiction and contemporary crime novels.

Public Domain (P)2023 SNR Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

‘Most people will find The Daughter of Time as interesting and enjoyable a book as they will meet in a month of Sundays’ Observer

History Rebunked

A great twist on the mystery novel. In our day of “armchair detectives” picking up cold cases and solving them, what a surprise that Inspector Grant of Scotland Yard, who is laid up in the hospital and bored to death, to find that his friends set his impeccable skills as a detective to solve a mystery from British history. Quite a unique idea for a novel.

Was Richard III a murderer of his two young nephews? Was he the monster that the school history books made him out to be? Or was it lies set in by the tortes? “Richard the Third. Crouchbach. (Hunchback) The monster of nursery stories. The destroyer of innocence. A synonym for villainy”. “What mystery was there about Richard Iii? And then he remembered. Richard had murdered his two boy nephews, but no one knew how. They had merely disappeared. They disappeared, if he remembered rightly, while Richard was away from London… But the mystery of the children’s actual fate had never been solved. Two skeletons had turned up — under some stairs? — in Charles II’s day, and had been buried. It had been taken for granted that the skeletons were the remains of the young princes, but nothing had ever been proved”,

His portrait shows him with a kind face, at least to Grant, and thus begins his search to finally solve this historical mystery and put it to rest. Grant was renowned for seeing a face and by instinct, knew if it was a guilty face. To keep Grant busy, his friends brought in a bunch of pictures of innocent and guilty people for Grant to use his instinctive skills to test if he really could tell if they were guilty or not. When he came to Ricard III’s portrait, Grand said “innocent” and his friends laughed and told him that the portrait was of Ricard the Third and he was most certainly guilty. Grant said he was not guilty and he was going to prove it. And so begins our story. He becomes completely consumed by this task and has his friends bringing him everything they can find from the library and other deep research to solve this case.

As I end this story I remain confused. I will now have to go back and piece all the facts that Grant (Tey) came up with and then compare to the other researchers before her that also tried to pull the real facts from history.

Alas, I have read many mistakes in our (America) history books that were just garbage. Actually in our current age (2026), I’m wondering what our history books for our great grandchildren will say of this tumultuous time with our country so divided. We are living in an age of misinformation. How will this be recorded?

I highly recommend this novel to anyone who has ever questioned what they read in their history books in grade school. That goes to the internet today also.

Truth Will Out

I can see why she won so many honors for this book. And especially it’s message: trust your instincts and look at more than one source before believing anything.

Fascinating!Very good narration.

I found the setting and plot very unusual. The conversation and historical mystery solving was fascinating!

Thank You Ms. Tey and Mom

My wonderful Mother gave me this to read when I entered grade school and it began my lifelong passion.
History and mystery, need I say more?
Great story, great reader. Fantastic.

Thoroughly Enjoyed this Book

I found this book to be both entertaining & thought provoking. I rarely recommend books since tastes vary so much but I plan to recommend this one to family and friends.