Enriched edition. An armchair inquiry into Richard III and the Princes in the Tower, as a bedridden inspector tests Tudor myths with cool, exacting detection.By Josephine Tey
Bedridden Inspector Alan Grant turns from contemporary crime to the enigma of Richard III, testing a policeman's instincts against biased chronicles and the seductions of portraiture. With a young researcher, he sifts Thomas More, Mancini, and Tudor propaganda, assembling a case that marries armchair detection to historiography. Published in 1951 at a moment of postwar reassessment, The Daughter of Time—its title from Bacon's maxim that truth is time's daughter—uses lucid prose, dry wit, and exacting source-criticism to challenge the myth of the murdered princes. Josephine Tey, pen name of Scottish novelist and dramatist Elizabeth MacKintosh (also Gordon Daviot), brought a playwright's economy and contrarian eye to crime fiction. Her stage triumph Richard of Bordeaux honed her feel for contested kings and the politics of reputation; distrust of formula and fascination with character made her an ideal skeptic of received history. Here she channels wide reading and stagecraft into a cool, anti-sensational inquiry rather than a chase. Scholars of Tudor history, Golden Age aficionados, and readers who relish intellectual detection will find a bracing corrective to lazy legend here. Read it for its method as much as its verdict: a graceful lesson in how patiently weighed evidence outlasts rumor.
Quickie Classics summarizes timeless works with precision, preserving the author's voice and keeping the prose clear, fast, and readable—distilled, never diluted. Enriched Edition extras: Introduction · Synopsis · Historical Context · Brief Analysis · 4 Reflection Q&As · Editorial Footnotes.
