Search results for ""author josephine tey""

'An ingenious book' SARAH WATERS'Permanent classics in the detective field . . . no superlatives are adequate' THE NEW YORK TIMESMarion Shape and her mother are quiet and ordinary villagers, enjoying a peaceful life in their country home, the Franchise. Everything changes when a local schoolgirl accuses them of kidnap and abuse, describing the attic room of the house as her prison. Scotland Yard inspector Alan Grant is called to solve the mystery of the Franchise, but will he fall right in the middle of nightmarish affair that will change a town, and its locals' lives, forever?'Josephine Tey enjoys a category to herself' NEW STATESMAN

Read more less

On his train back to Scotland for a well-earned rest, Inspector Grant learns that a fellow passenger, one Charles Martin, has been found dead. It looks like a case of misadventure - but Grant is not so sure. Teased by some enigmatic lines of verse that the deceased had apparently scrawled on a newspaper, he follows a trail to the remote Outer Hebrides.And though it is the end of his holiday, it is also the beginning of an intriguing investigation into the bizarre circumstances shrouding Charles Martin's death...

Read more less

A classic murder mystery from the Golden Age of detective fiction, written by genre legend Josephine Tey.Leys Physical Training College is famous for its excellent discipline and its spectacularly athletic students. Miss Lucy Pym, expert psychologist, is pleased and flattered to be invited to lecture there - even if the Olympian splendour of the students leaves her feeling just a little inadequate.But a nasty accident spoils the occasion, and suddenly Miss Pym must turn her intellect to the unpleasant suspicion that, among all these healthy young students, there lurks an incurably sick mind...

Read more less

'A detective story with a very considerable difference. Ingenious, stimulating and very enjoyable' SUNDAY TIMES'As interesting and enjoyable a book as they will meet in a month of Sundays' OBSERVERScotland Yard inspector Alan Grant, recovering from a broken leg, becomes fascinated with a contemporary portrait of Richard III, believed to have brutally killed his brother's children - the Princes in the Tower - to make his crown secure. But is the hunchback with such a sensitive, noble face really one of the world's most heinous villains? Or was he the victim of one of the most insidious plots in history?'One of the best mysteries of all time' NEW YORK TIMES'Suspense is achieved by unexpected twists and extremely competent storytelling . . . credible and convincing' SPECTATOR

Read more less

'The new crime and espionage series from Penguin Classics makes for a mouth-watering prospect' Daily TelegraphAbducted, beaten, hidden in an attic, a young woman stages an audacious escape. But is her story everything she claims it to be?Fifteen-year-old Betty Kane can recall every detail of the room where she says she was held at the country house known as The Franchise - even the crack in its round window. But her alleged kidnappers, a quiet-living mother and daughter, claim they have never seen her before. Somebody has to be lying. But who? As the case sparks a media frenzy, it is up to unassuming village solicitor Robert Blair to find out.

Read more less

Beneath the sea cliffs of the south coast, suicides are a sad but common fact. Yet even the hardened coastguard knows something is wrong when a beautiful young film actress is found lying dead on the beach one morning. Inspector Grant has to take a more professional attitude: death by suicide, however common, has to have a motive - just like murder...

Read more less

Discover the new Penguin Crime and Espionage seriesAn impostor has a fortune to win - but he may be in danger of losing his life...Twenty-one-year-old Brat Farrar is an orphan, alone in the world without friends or family. So when he is offered the unexpected chance to impersonate Patrick Ashby, the long-lost heir to a vast fortune on a country estate, he agrees. Brat is the spitting image of Patrick, who disappeared years ago. At first it seems Brat can pull off this incredible deception, until he starts to realise that he is in far greater peril than he ever imagined.

Read more less

A clever mystery classic from one of Britain's greatest and most original crime writers, the author of The Daughter of Time In 1920s London, the packed queue for the city's most popular musical comedy is growing impatient. When the theatre doors open at last and the crowd surges forward, a man falls to the ground, dead-silently stabbed with a stiletto. Who killed him before melting away unseen into the night? As Inspector Alan Grant investigates, the mystery turns into a breathless manhunt leading from London all the way to the Scottish highlands and back, before at last a truth is revealed that shocks even the canny detective himself. This is an unforgettable classic from crime writing's golden age

Read more less

A stranger enters the inner sanctum of the Ashby family posing as Patrick Ashby, the heir to the family's sizeable fortune. The stranger, Brat Farrar, has been carefully coached on Patrick's mannerisms, appearance and every significant detail of Patrick's early life, up to his thirteenth year when he disappeared and was thought to have drowned himself. It seems as if Brat is going to pull off this most incredible deception until old secrets emerge that threaten to jeopardise the imposter's plan and his very life...

Read more less

Bestselling author Josephine Tey’s classic final mystery featuring her best-loved character, Inspector Alan Grant, filled with “all the Tey magic and delight” and now featuring a new introduction by Robert Barnard.On sick leave from Scotland Yard, Inspector Alan Grant is planning a quiet holiday with an old school chum to recover from overwork and mental fatigue. Traveling on the night train to Scotland, however, Grant stumbles upon a dead man and a cryptic poem about “the stones that walk” and “the singing sand,” which send him off on a fascinating search into the verse’s meaning and the identity of the deceased. Grant needs just this sort of casual inquiry to quiet his jangling nerves, despite his doctor’s orders. But what begins as a leisurely pastime eventually turns into a full-blown investigation that leads Grant to discover not only the key to the poem but the truth about a most diabolical murder.

Read more less

'The most interesting of the great female writers of the Golden Age. This disarmingly low-key tale of a mysterious disappearance is the perfect introduction to her world' VAL MCDERMID 'The definition of a classic, a real cut above. It hasn't aged a day' JOSEPH KNOX When Hollywood-star photographer Leslie Searle disappears from a remote English village, gifted inspector Alan Grant is called in to investigate. But what would bring such a successful individual to the village? And was his vanishing his own doing, or did something eerie occur at the hands of an unsuspected culprit?'Will leave you desperate to re-read' SARAH HILARY 'Worth reading for its ingenious denouement'TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT

Read more less

Outside a London theatre a throng of people wait expectantly for the last performance of a popular musical. But as the doors open at last, something spoils all thought of entertainment: a man in the queue is found murdered by the deadly thrust of a stiletto...

Read more less

Who really killed the princes in the tower? Was Richard III truly the ogre of legend and Shakespeare's play. - a wicked uncle who murdered his nephews to steal the crown of England? Inspector Alan Grant is not so sure. Laid up in hospital with a broken leg, he becomes obsessed with unravelling this most enduring of historical mysteries. As he investigates with the help of an enthusiastic young American scholar, he unearths long-buried intrigues and comes to a startling conclusion.

Read more less

For fans of true crime and of classic crime fiction, The Franchise Affair by Josephine Tey is a gripping thriller featuring detective Alan Grant and a masterful exposé of the powerful connections between media, the establishment and what people choose to believe. Based on a true story.Complete and unabridged. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is introduced by writer David Stuart Davies.Fifteen-year-old Betty Kane has never put a foot wrong. Naturally, everyone is shocked and horrified to hear her story – that she was kidnapped, tortured and held prisoner by Marion Sharpe and her elderly mother, owners of the mysterious old house, The Franchise. But are the two women really guilty of such a horrendous crime? Every page resonates with tension as the story unfolds – did they or didn’t they take a young girl prisoner? And whose story can you trust?

Read more less

Voted the top crime novel of all time by the UK Crime Writers’ Association, The Daughter of Time is Josephine Tey’s last and most successful book.Complete and unabridged. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is introduced by writer David Stuart Davies.Inspector Alan Grant is laid up in hospital with a spinal injury and he’s bored. Renowned for his ability to read a face, he passes the time looking at old portraits and one which particularly grabs his attention is of Richard III, the supposed arch villain who killed his own nephews, ‘the princes in the tower’. But Grant doesn’t accept the face in the portrait is the face of a villain so he sets out to investigate what really happened. An unusual premise for a crime novel perhaps, but nevertheless an extremely clever and engrossing one, brilliantly plotted and written with enormous charm and erudition.

Read more less