The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey

Inspector Alan Grant is bed-borne as he had fallen through a trap-door. He is affected by the 'prickles of boredom'. He is not interested in any of the romances or mysteries his various well-wishers had brought for him to read. How long could one stare at the ceiling and find patterns? He had to do something to keep his mind occupied. Marta Hallard, Grant's actress friend, sends him some pictures to see, as he is interested in faces. One of the faces catches his fancy- that of Richard III.

Do you remember anything about Richard III? I don't. Only British Kings who caught my fancy are the Tudors especially Henry VIII with his five wives. So coming to Richard III, Grant shows the picture to many and asks their opinion on the face and then asks them about Richard III. While all the reports on the face are positive, the reports on Richard III are negative. Wasn't he the one who killed his innocent nephews? Grant with the help of a 'looker-upper' starts his investigation into the death of the boys, the Princes in the Tower.

Did Richard III kill his nephews? What happened to the boys? Who killed them and why?

It wasn't an easy read. It was confusing. Especially with the War of Roses background. Who is the brother of whom? Who had claim to the throne? I had to do a quick wikipedia reference. But that wasn't much help. I thought I would take it easy, read it some more to see if it made any sense. Or else read it some other time after some history reading. Taking it easy seemed to work. Then it kind of flew. Grant sums it up nicely.

I liked Tonypandy. The book is worth reading just to know about Tonypandy. I liked Sainted More too! I liked the ending! What do you need in a book, a satisfactory ending, what else?

This book counts towards various challenges. I picked it up for Getting lost in a Comfortable Book challenge. It counts as the Classic Mystery for the Back to Classics Challenge and Historical Whodunit for the Merely Mystery Reading Challenge. I borrowed the book from my local library.

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