Customer Reviews

The Franchise Affair

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THE FRANCHISE AFFAIR is an unusual detective novel. There is no murder; in fact, the question at the heart of the story is whether there is a crime at all. A young girl named Betty Kane accuses two women, Marion Sharpe and her mother, Mrs. Sharpe, of kidnapping her, beating her, and holding her prisoner at their house, the Franchise. The girl gives a damningly accurate description of the attic in which she was supposedly imprisoned. Inspector Grant makes the barest of appearances in this novel; instead, the detective reins are taken over by a lawyer named Robert Blair, who is convinced that the girl is lying.

Josephine Tey's novels are noted for their unconventional plots, and THE FRANCHISE AFFAIR is no exception. Unlike Christie, who usually withholds her revelations until the very end, Tey pieces the puzzle together step by step, allowing the reader to see the truth come together as the story progresses. And while the plot may lack the brilliance and ingenuity of Christie, it is clever and well-constructed.

THE FRANCHISE AFFAIR is more than just a mystery; it is an incredibly rich and satisfying novel. The characters are well-developed, the story is engaging, the writing is crisp and literate, and there is plenty of social commentary on English life in the early 1900s.

Josephine Tey's 1949 THE FRANCHISE AFFAIR is frequently described as a mystery or a detective novel. In fact, it is nothing of the kind; it is instead a tale of the emotional tension and legal maneuvering that occurs in the wake of a highly publicized false accusation.

Elderly Mrs. Sharpe and her highly individualistic daughter Marion reside on the outskirts of a rural English community in a decaying mansion known as Franchise. Although considered eccentric by locals, they are tolerated--until an attractive schoolgirl named Betty Kane claims that she was kidnapped, beaten, and held prisoner by the Sharpes for a month. Betty Kane's story is convincing enough to draw both the interest of Scotland Yard and the national press, but Sharpe's solicitor recognizes her for what she is: a vicious creature eager to conceal her real activities from her unsuspecting family. And even as the press comes down hard on the side of the girl and the locals turn on the Sharpes, he sets out to expose Betty Kane before the world for the liar she is.

The story itself is extremely credible, the characters remarkably well drawn, and Tey writes in a very elegant style that offers enough detail to perfectly capture the story, characters, and locales without overplaying into excess. A truly enjoyable work; recommended.

--GFT (Amazon Reviewer)--

A teenage girl, missing for weeks, reappears with a story of being kidnapped and imprisoned by an eccentric mother and daughter; the latter enlists a bored country lawyer to defend them. Tey's Inspector Alan Grant takes a back seat in this book to the main characters. The plot is based on an actual eighteenth-century case, but Tey updates it and makes it fully believable. Not only are all the characters (even minor ones) beautifully drawn, but the various settings in which the story takes place are memorably described. The book is not only a whacking good mystery with a thoroughly satisfying solution, but also a vivid picture of post-WW II Britain, and a commentary on the power of the popular press that's more pertinent than ever today. This one is high on my Top 10 Mysteries of All Time list.

Josephine Tey is widely regarded as one of England's best mystery writers, and deservedly so.

In THE FRANCHISE AFFAIR, she has written a taut psychologivcal thriller, the emotional equivalent of a locked room mystery.

When THE FRANCHISE AFFAIR first was published, back in 1949, it provided a knowing glimpse of life in a tiny English village. Due to its modern theme and the suspense that Ms. Tey was able to build, this mystery has been re-issued several times over an entire half-century, proof in itself as to its excellence.

The story revolves around the accusation of a young girl against two older women, respectable women, mother and daughter, that these women had kidnapped her, imprisoned her, beat her. The older women insist that not only have they committed no criminal act, but that they never set eyes on the girl before this extraordinary accusation was made against them. The local media attention all but turns the women into witches in the public perception.

The general opinion locally is that this young girl could have no reason to lie about the women, that there would be no purpose for her to make such charges if these were not true, and no way for her to know such thorough detail as she claimed.

To the rescue, and almost against his will, a country lawyer agrees to represent the ladies. Yet how does one prove a negative, that his clients did not do these heinous acts, that they had no way even of knowing their purported victim?

In the process of making a defense that is more than the accuser's word against the accused, the reader is given a peek into small town English rhythms and morality.

THE FRANCHISE AFFAIR makes for compelling reading, even if Ms. Tey, as the story's creator, has too much control and too neatly finds "angels" and makes "miracles" (the nouns used in the tale) to resolve the dilemma.

Almost sixty years after the story's first printing, some of the details have become charming anachronisms: the post-World War II patriotism, the lack of technology. No faxes, no cell phones, cut telephone hardwires--what a different plot it would have had to be if it were written today.

Rather than dragging down this mystery, these old-fashioned discrepancies make THE FRANCHISE AFFAIR even more enjoyable reading. And human emotions, which Josephine Tey understood as well as anyone, do not change over time, which means that THE FRANCHISE AFFAIR remains as compelling a psychological study as it had been when she wrote it in the 1940s.

Teenager Betty Kane, bruised and sore after being missing for weeks, claims that she was abducted by two women and coerced into doing maid service for them before she managed to escape. The young girl is very innocent looking and has a spotless reputation. Furthermore, she describes the place of her imprisonment with great accuracy, although the two women, mother and daughter, claim that they have never seen her before.

Robert Blair, suddenly bored with the routine law practice which has been in the family for generations, takes on the case for the two women, the younger of whom becomes more and more attractive to him. He is totally convinced of their innocence and develops a burning passion not only to prove them blameless but also to expose the girl as a brazen fraud. But after a scandal sheet exposes the case to the world, public opinion is so strong against the ladies that they and their property are in constant danger.

There are some weaknesses in the plot. For instance, after long and diligent investigation by a top-notch private detective, the solution just drops in out of the blue from a most unexpected source. But Tey handles the whole thing so well that it seems perfectly plausible. The characterizations are excellent, and the reader will have a strong sympathy for the women and for Blair. The second half of the book is a real page turner. And the ending has a very nice, satisfying touch. This novel is almost as good as Tey's BRAT FARRAR.

This is not your typical murder mystery; in fact, the crime is not murder, but possibly a worse one: false accusation of a kidnapping and beating. The resolution may be a little disappointing in that a portion of it comes about not as a result of sleuthing, but pretty much out of the blue. Nonetheless, the characterizations are finely drawn, and the suspense maintained to the end. At the end one might suspect that this has not really been a mystery at all, but another kind of fiction in the form of a mystery. My own rereading tends to confirm this idea at least for myself. It also confirms that the mystery elements have been dealt with fairly by the author, including the suitcases, which are explained within a few paragraphs of their introduction. Along the way, the author takes more than a few potshots at "woolly thinking", entertaining in their own right. It's a pity we have only about eight novels from her, since half are outstanding in their own sui-generis way.

The Franchise Affair introduced me to Josephine Tey. What a wonderful introduction! The characters she created in this wonderful book are well developed, full of life, and complex in so many ways. The flow of the book kept me wanting more, and the final scene made me smile for a very long time. I would recommend this book over and over to all my friends who love English mysteries. A must read!

I appreciate a mystery writer who doesn't make every mystery a murder mystery. This is a fun read about the best and worst of man's nature - a case that seems to be one person's word against anothers'. Watch how the general public reacts and form your own opinion. This sort of tale is timeless.

Foul Language - None.
Sex - None, overtly. Some discussion of cohabitation by an unwed man and woman as well as adultery. Appropriate for the story.
Violence - Some mob violence, not graphic.

Classic English mystery novels are often set in an idealized vision of rural life, surviving apparently intact the changes brought about by two wars. The indulgence of a gentle nostalgia is one of the great pleasures of reading them. In THE FRANCHISE AFFAIR, the setting is a small market town, and the leading character, Robert Blair, is a fortyish country lawyer, set in his ways and approaching a comfortable middle age. But mysteries also involve a worm in the bud, as a contrast to the beauty of the rose. In this case, the contrast is the Franchise, an isolated house some miles from the town, surrounded by high walls, and bleak and forbidding. It is the kind of place to start rumors, and indeed its current inhabitants -- a older woman and her adult daughter -- are accused of kidnapping and torturing a young girl. They call upon Blair to represent them, thus leading him to re-examine the priorities and attitudes that he had taken for granted in his own society.

It is an unusual mystery novel in several respects. First, that the crime is not a murder (it is actually based upon a real historical case). Second, that the case against the women seems open and shut, and even when we have begun to assume with Robert that there must be other explanations, there are several setbacks that make him and us doubt afresh. Thirdly, there is a strange romance that builds between Robert and the daughter of the house, unusual because of the relative age of the couple, unusual in that they both resist it, and unusual too in its unexpected ending. By the end, indeed, the novelistic aspects of the book as a portrait of small town society and of a rather awkward romance ultimately take on greater importance than the solution of the mystery, well worked out though this is. But I consider this a strength, and will definitely want to return to the book for a third time in another decade or so.

[The reader may wish to see my much longer review of a collection of Tey novels published as THREE BY TEY, from which the above remarks are taken.]

No question that Tey was a fine writer--especially with her characterizations & wonderful turns of phrase. For example, "The Governor to whom a tear in the eye was just a drop of H2O," "Awful to be suffering for port you never drank," & "If you see a giraffe once a year it remains a spectacle; if you see it daily it becomes part of the scenery." The crime is cleverly drawn, esp. the question of how the girl's description of "The Franchise" house could be so accurate, though Tey never really explains it--it is implied in the conspiratorial relationships. The activities of the protagonist (a country lawyer) reminds me of a Dick Francis novel. Still, I think the plot/mystery is quite obvious and the resolution rather banal--though I liked the final ending. It's not "Daughter of Time," but if you're looking for a very enjoyable read, this would be a fine choice.