The Daughter of Time, Josephine Tey (4.0)
This book started slowly, but caught my attention with its
unique approach to an interesting mystery in English history. For those who
mainly know Richard III from the Shakespeare play, the detective work done in
this quiet novel to uncover his true nature will surprise you. Basically an
injured detective (known from Ms. Tey’s earlier novels) is bored during his recuperation
and his friend gives him a group of photos of various menacing characters of
history. His task is to use his touted skills of reading people’s faces to
decide if the evil person was really all that bad. He settles on Richard III
and his initial reaction to the portrait draws him in to learning more about
this much-maligned king. With the help of a student of history, he uses
detective work and objective data, rather than the words of the victorious
Henry VII’s chroniclers of history. His findings are quite remarkable
concerning the motivations and timing of the key events – particularly the
alleged murders of the two Princes he is purported to have killed in order to
take the thrown. My biggest complaint with all historical novels is that while I
thoroughly enjoyed the narrative, in the end of the day, this is a novel and
the author does not have to stick to the facts. The story made me pine for my
own student of history to verify the information!
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