Book of the Month–February 2016
The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey
Scotland Yard Inspector Alan Grant is bedridden in hospital with a broken leg. Accustomed to an active life, his situation has left him bored and bad tempered. Familiar with his belief that he can judge an individual’s character from studying the person’s face, Marta Hallard, an actor friend, provides him with pictures of historical figures and asks him to analyse them. Grant is taken with a painting of Richard III determining from his appearance that he is a kind and gentle man, not the murderer that history reports.
With the help of Hallard and other friends, Grant sets out to solve the crimes that Richard is accused of, including the murder of the Princes in the Tower of London.
Written in 1951, this novel is considered one of the best mystery novels of the 20th century.
Also available as:
• Audiobook
• eAudiobook
• eBook
• Large Print
• Talking Book: DAISY format (restricted to Print Disabled patrons)
Acknowledgements and Awards
1990: Crime Writers’ Association Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time (#1)
1995: Mystery Writers of America: Top 100 Mystery Novels of All Time (#4)
About the Author
Josephine Tey is the pseudonym of Elizabeth Mackintosh. Mackintosh was born in Inverness, Scotland in 1896. She trained at the Anstey Physical Training College to become a physical education teacher. During WWI she taught fitness classes for factory workers. She also taught in various schools in England. In 1923 she returned to Inverness to care for her ailing paren'ts. Here she began writing. Her first novel The Man in the Queue was published in 1929 using the pseudonym Gordon Daviot and dedicated to her typewriter, Brisena. For subsequent mystery novels she used a combination of her mother’s first name and grandmother’s maiden name to create the pseudonym Josephine Tey.
Actor John Gielgud considered her a friend but admitted that she was very private and he knew little about her beyond her writing. He said that “[s]he was distressed by her inability to write original plots”.
Elizabeth Mackintosh died in 1952.
Other Books by Josephine Tey
Brat Farrar
The Man in the Queue
• eBook
• Large Print
A Shilling for Candles
• Large Print
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