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The Franchise Affair | 
 enlarge | Author: Josephine (introduction By Antonia Fraser; Illustrations By Paul Hogarth) Tey
Publisher: Folio Society
Category: Book
Buy Used: $26.75
Used (3) from $26.75
Avg. Customer Rating:  19 reviews
Sales Rank: 1672180
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 254
ASIN: B000FNLFR4
Publication Date: 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: hard cover in heavy cardboard slipcase, minimal shelf wear, corners/edges of case slightly worn/bent, covers of case slightly scuffed/scratched, -ELE
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Product Description
Blue Decorated Boards in blue slipcase
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| Customer Reviews: Read 14 more reviews...
 The strange people in the strange house June 14, 2008
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.]
 First Class Mystery December 20, 2007
I was very impressed with Josephine Tey's The Franchise Affair. It was very well written and kept me guessing until the end. This book was highly recommended to me from a book group I belong to and I'm glad I read it.
I've been jaded from today's kind of endings January 3, 2007
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book was a good read. The only problem was on my end. I kept trying to make the book more twisted and deep that it really was. You have to remember when it was written. You can't compare it with today's books or TV shows where there is always another twist coming. I thought the ending was a little disappointing. Even in the movie Casablanca the guy didn't get the girl at the end and that movie was written before this book. Overall the mystery was good and I would recommend it ending and all.
One of the best mysteries from the British Classic Period December 28, 2006
This and, Tey's Brat Farrar, are two of the very best from the decades around WWII when British mystery writing was so good. Unlike many of the books by Dorothy Sayers, Marjorie Allingham or Ngaio Marsh, classics in their day, these two by Tey stand up well to the passage of time. The story of The Franchise Affair is timeless and the characters and local so beautifully written that the book is not dated at all. The modern reader can appreciate the difference in lifestyle in the post War time without feeling that it is too period or quaint. A fine story that is suspenseful even though the reader knows from the beginning how the tale will end.
An important mystery June 20, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is a great book with an excellent mystery at its core that raises a fascinating question: when people seem to have information they shouldn't know unless some claim they're making is true, and yet seem to be lying about who they've come by that information, what is one to do? The mystery in this book, which was inspired by real events, is about a young girl who claims that she was kidnapped and held hostage in an attic room of a house in England. The owners of the house swear that not only is this not the case, but that 1) this girl has never set foot in their house, and 2) they have never seen her before. A character in the book seems to think that the owners of the house are telling the truth, only, there's one problem: the girl can describe details concerning the interior of the house. Does this fact prove that her story is true? No, obviously it does not. Why it does not is an important lesson, and is one that surely extends beyond the confines of this mystery. The answer, for instance, has much to do with how con artists fool people into thinking they are "psychic." Though The Daughter of Time is often hailed as Tey's greatest accomplishment, I must disagree. I found The Franchise Affair to be a far superior novel. This is must reading for mystery fans.
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