|
| 
 enlarge | Author: Josephine Tey
Publisher: Touchstone
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
Buy Used: $1.74
You Save: $12.26 (88%)
New (25) Used (43) Collectible (1) from $1.74
Avg. Customer Rating:  19 reviews
Sales Rank: 84934
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st Scribner Paperback Fiction Ed
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.3 x 0.6
ISBN: 0684842564
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.912
EAN: 9780684842561
ASIN: 0684842564
Publication Date: August 18, 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: We ship Monday - Friday and typically process orders on the next business day. We list the majority of our books in "Good" condition. If this book had any major flaws, it would be listed in "Acceptable" condition. Easy returns if you are unhappy with the book. Proceeds benefit non-profit Goodwill Industries of San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin Counties. Our mission is to create solutions to poverty through the businesses we operate. Your purchase creates jobs and transforms lives. Thank you.
|
| Customer Reviews:
 Psychological morality tale May 11, 2006
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
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.
Excellent psychological study April 18, 2006
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
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.
 Opaque dark blue eyes July 23, 2003
2 out of 6 found this review helpful
Josephine Tey is remarkable for the broad subject range of her books and for fine writing. A similarity in her books is that she writes about people with insecure identities. It begins as a story of kidnapping and assault and is improbable given the characteristics of the two women who live at The Franchise. Robert Blair, solicitor for Mrs. and Miss Sharpe, sees a look of triumph on the alleged victim's face when she manages to describe some luggage accurately. Robert's aunt feels that odd people live at The Franchise. The maid in the aunt's house is having a round of excessive religious enthusiasm Robert finds. Robert wonders whether his life is so placid that a stranger's jeopardy stirs him. The girl is a prosecuting counsel's dream of a victim. A tabloid then blows the matter wide open. An observer feels the Sharpes are incapable of insane conduct. The case is not sub judice and so the press is free to comment. The tabloid story actually supports a defense investigation since the girl's picture is published and anyone who knows something about her absence for a month may view it. It is discovered that the victim has a photographic memory. The victim's mother had gone dancing with officers during World War II. The girl did go bus-riding during her vaction. Robert determines that she could have seen the details of the house from the top of a double decker bus.
An Excellent Novel June 30, 2003
12 out of 13 found this review helpful
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 Cause Celebre March 11, 2003
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
This is probably one of the best books ever written about a cause celebre. Miss Tey uses her Inspector Grant, but he is only a minor character in this book. The main character is Robert Blair and he is a treasure - a small town fortyish civil lawyer who gets drawn into a kidnapping case that tests all of his deductive and logical powers. Why does he not believe the fifteen year old gir in her story that she was held captive in an attic by two women. Robert finds himself on the side of the accused women and he has to use all his deductive powers and trust to prayrer and good luck to solve the case. Miss Tey writes an awesome story!
|
|
|
Franchise Books | |
