The Daughter of Time - Josephine Tey

When Scotland Yard Inspector Alan Grant gets laid up in the hospital with a broken leg, he is bored to absolute tears. There are no cases to uncover, no mysteries to unravel and no murders to solve. Or, are there?
Left alone with his thoughts and a package of famous portraits, Grant focuses in on one that strikes him as unfamiliar, but sympathetic. Upon close examination of the subject's features, as an Inspector must do, he notices a look of both power and suffering about the face. A judge, perhaps? Still unable to place the man in portrait, Grant turns it over. It is Richard III---wicked uncle and murderer!
But it can't be! Grant is sure that the portrait does not bear the face of a murderer, as he has seen quite a few murderers in his time. Faced with not much else but free time, Grant vows to uncover the truth about Richard's guilt or innocence in the infamous murders of the "Princes in the Tower." And he does! Although Grant is confined to his hospital bed for the entirety of the novel, Josephine Tey is a talented writer who weaves twists and turns throughout. She skillfully keeps the readers attention rapt while Grant dives into history books and plays out possible theories to his duo of nurses, friends and a woolly research assistant.
With skill and diligent research, Tey presents both sides of this historical event, giving the reader quite a nice cache of information to chew on. She is thorough with her facts and cunning in her presentation. Daughter of Time is steeped with fascinating information about Richard III, Edward IV, Elizabeth Woodville, Henry VII (The Tudor here), Cecily Nevill, St. Thomas More, John Morton, Cuthbert Oliphant, The Duke of Buckingham, among other shadowy tellers and players. Putting the book down proved difficult to put the book down, and once I did, all I wanted to do was to rush out and check out the old history books on Richard Plantagenet for myself---in their entirety!
If you are a fan of the Tudor times (the era in which most of the history of Richard III was created), and you haven't read this wonderful,intriguing book by Josephine Tey, you absolutely must!

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