From the Bookshelf of Reading the Detectives…

The Franchise Affair (Inspector Alan Grant, #3)

Josephine Tey,

Robert Barnard (Introduction)

Start date: November 1, 2020

Finish date: November 30, 2020

Discussion: Group reads

Why we're reading this: Winner of the poll for our November group read.
[close] Winner of the poll for our November group read.

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Group reads

* November 2025 group read - Winner!
By Judy · 20 posts · 32 views

last updated Sep 17, 2025 08:43AM

* Sept 25: Lonesome Road (#3 Miss Silver Mysteries) by Patricia Wentworth
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last updated Sep 19, 2025 01:03PM

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What Members Thought

Nov 22, 2020 Tania rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery

3.5

It's a bit of a stretch to call this one an Inspector Grant book, he barely gets a mention. I did enjoy it though, despite some of its problems. ...more

14 likes · Like · see review

Aug 07, 2023 Calum Fisher rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Never quite one of the big-hitters of female golden age detective authors - perhaps because she was not prolific, also wrote plays and 'straight' fiction, and was intensely private and shy of publicity - Tey is respected amongst the cogniscenti. The Daughter of Time has crossover cred within literary fiction, as well as being named the greatest crime novel of all time by the Crime Writers' Association. Nicola Upson has even written neo-golden age works featuring Tey as detective.

This is my firs Never quite one of the big-hitters of female golden age detective authors - perhaps because she was not prolific, also wrote plays and 'straight' fiction, and was intensely private and shy of publicity - Tey is respected amongst the cogniscenti. The Daughter of Time has crossover cred within literary fiction, as well as being named the greatest crime novel of all time by the Crime Writers' Association. Nicola Upson has even written neo-golden age works featuring Tey as detective.

This is my first Tey and I was delighted by it. She is first and foremost a beautful writer. Her characters really come alive, in particular the Sharpe mother and daughter and many of the subsidiary parts. It is an updated version of the infamous Canning case in 18th century England, in which a young woman claimed to have been kidnapped by two women and held prisoner in their house for a month, near-starved and dressed only in rags. Here the action is updated to provincial post-war England, a teenage schoolgirl claiming to have been kidnapped, beaten and abused by Marion Sharpe and her mother in a huge, ugly house on the edge of town named The Franchise. A young lawyer named Robert Blair takes centre stage as investigator and there is only a cameo from Tey's regular detective Alan Grant.

It's a striking and intriguing plot, sinister in many ways. The resolution is pretty good and pretty fair, but in many ways is one of the least interesting aspects of the book. Much of Tey's interest lies in painting a strange, dark, faintly subversive picture of this provincial world and, above all, of mob mentality and media frenzies. Much of this is distinctly un-cosy, as an apparently civilised society descends into mania and mob violence. It's also strikingly topical, even prescient, in 2023.

So on one level, she is quite a dark, critical, subversive writer - certainly branching out in her concerns from most Golden Age fare - and she is certainly a brilliant one. Her prose is delightful, the effect wholly absorbing and page-turning.

On another level, though, Tey is a much more conservative force. Her view on the Canning case, and her own characters by extension, is laid out clearly - the girl is an inveterate liar, with loose sexual morals, and an evil mind. The book is very, very funny when Tey takes all manner of swipes at progressive and liberal mindsets but she is, lets be clear, a raging and unapologetic snob. In the hands of a lesser writer, this could be insufferable (see M C Beaton), but here it's a source of much comedy, and part of the charm of the book.

The Franchise Affair works best of all I think as a biting social comedy and satire, with strong shades of Austen and, above all, of the glorious Barbara Pym. But woke it ain't. ...more

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Mar 27, 2024 Mark Schiffer rated it it was amazing

Shelves: crime, series

A young woman comes forward with a story of kidnapping and servitude, and an accusation directed at a mother and daughter occupying a property with a name in the community. The way it all shakes out is thrilling, humane, and comic! Nice to read a mystery without a murder at the center sometimes. I dug this even more than The Daughter of Time, the only other Tey I've read. Definitely seems like checking out more would be worthwhile. ...more

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Nov 16, 2020 Sandy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-detective-grp, mystery-classic, rread-2020

Calling this an Inspector Grant book is misleading; he only appears a couple of times and does not take part in the investigation. He ignores the problem and it falls on the local lawyer to solve the case. The local lawyer is an interesting character, quite realistic and sympathetic. I liked his, and his nephew's, development over the course of the story. His aunt is a treat. The village is portrayed starting with picturesque quaintness then with small-minded, nosy, gossiping neighbors, finally ...more

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