Rating: 
Summary: One of my favorite books - ever
Review: 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!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Mystery
Review: The Franchise Affair is a great mystery. Even though you know what the ending will probably be, you'll want to keep reading. Marion Sharpe and her mother, who live in a isolated mansion known as the Franchise, are accused of kidnapping and beating a teenager, Betty Kane. They say that they have never seen her before, and enlist a local attorney, Robert Blair, to defend them. He has never handled a case like this before, but resolves to do it. As the book progresses, Blair decides to conduct his own investigation into Betty Kane. He fervently believes in the Sharpes' innocence, and works to find gaps in Betty's story. Even though it seems like something straight out of Masterpiece Theatre, The Franchise Affair is exciting and hard to put down.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Mystery
Review: The Franchise Affair is a great mystery. Even though you know what the ending will probably be, you'll want to keep reading. Marion Sharpe and her mother, who live in a isolated mansion known as the Franchise, are accused of kidnapping and beating a teenager, Betty Kane. They say that they have never seen her before, and enlist a local attorney, Robert Blair, to defend them. He has never handled a case like this before, but resolves to do it. As the book progresses, Blair decides to conduct his own investigation into Betty Kane. He fervently believes in the Sharpes' innocence, and works to find gaps in Betty's story. Even though it seems like something straight out of Masterpiece Theatre, The Franchise Affair is exciting and hard to put down.
Rating: 
Summary: A very enjoyable novel
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Highly Original Mystery
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Highly Original Mystery
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: A Cause Celebre
Review: 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!
Rating:
Summary: A Cause Celebre
Review: 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!
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