However, the young man stumbles upon information about his new identity which could lead to murder. The relationship between the imposter and his 'family,' including a young relative who begins to love him in a very unfamilial way, seems to provide the center of the story. A young man who closely resembles the dead son of a comfortable, horse-breeding English family, agrees to impersonate the young man, who is thought to have killed himself. Sharpe and Blair's maiden Aunt Lin even the girl Betty is clearly portrayed, her child's demure face and costume hiding a devious and self-centered core.ĭeliberate detective work is minimized in Tey's only other non-Alan Grant mystery, Brat Farrar. The important developments in concluding the investigation appear later in the novel so that character study is the most significant activity: Tey draws vivid pictures of old Mrs. Unfortunately, Tey's adaptation of a true 18th-century crime is somewhat slow-paced and the tracking down of the accused seems too casually accomplished. Miss Pym's faith in discovering people's guilt in crime by understanding their personalities is shared by lawyer Robert Blair who solves The Franchise Affair for his client Marion Sharpe. The investigation gives Tey great opportunity to describe an improbable gathering of teenaged physical education students: the independent and attractive Head Girl, 'Beau' Nash her pleasant, intelligent, competent friend, Mary Innes and the fiery Latin American exchange student, far more sexually mature than her peers, who wants only to dance. At a girls' physical education college, which is described with fascinating details of programs of study, sport activities, and employment inquiries, Miss Pym undertakes the discovery of the murderer of an unpleasant student. In Miss Pym Disposes a former French teacher who has casually and flippantly written a popular psychology book begins to believe in her ability to understand the human psyche. Tey's amateur detectives are each different from the other. Tey wrote several non-series examples of detection and mystery in addition to her creation of the gentleman-police officer Alan Grant, whose shoes never revealed his status as CID investigator. Her style is pure, her plots and characters carefully wrought, and her adherence to the classical traditions dependable. While her work differs from theirs in several respects, it undoubtedly belongs to the Golden Age of detective fiction.

Josephine Tey's novels of mystery and detection are often categorized with those of Dorothy L.

The daughter of time by josephine tey