Can a detective solve a centuries-old murder from a hospital bed?
In short: Confined to a hospital bed with a broken leg, Scotland Yard Inspector Alan Grant becomes obsessed with the face of King Richard III. By applying modern investigative logic to historical records, he challenges the centuries-old consensus that the monarch murdered his nephews, the Princes in the Tower.
Published in 1951, Josephine Tey’s The Daughter of Time is a unique detective novel that eschews physical action for intellectual rigor. The story follows Inspector Alan Grant, who, bored by his recovery, turns his analytical gaze toward history. Prompted by an actress friend, Marta Hallard, to examine portraits of historical figures, Grant finds himself unable to reconcile the supposed villainy of Richard III with the gentle, wise face he observes in a portrait. This initial intuition sparks a systematic investigation into the disappearance of the young princes.
Assisted by a young American researcher named Brent Carradine, Grant scrutinizes historical documents and popular narratives. He discovers that the traditional account of Richard’s guilt lacks contemporary legal evidence, such as a bill of attainder or a coroner’s inquest. Instead, Grant concludes that the narrative of the king as a monstrous murderer was a fabrication of Tudor propaganda. By applying the standard police criteria of means, motive, and opportunity, he posits that King Henry VII had far more reason to eliminate the heirs to the throne after the Battle of Bosworth Field, when the boys were already in his custody.
The novel serves as a meditation on how history is constructed and how myths—which Tey terms 'Tonypandy'—become accepted as truth despite a lack of evidence. Tey explores the danger of emotional, popular narratives that override logical inquiry. The title itself is derived from the proverb 'Truth is the daughter of time,' reflecting the idea that the passage of years eventually reveals what has been hidden. By challenging the historical record, the book remains a classic of the genre, illustrating that the methods of a detective and a historian are often one and the same.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: The Daughter of Time | Summary & Description | Britannica
- Also: The Daughter of Time
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