The Franchise Affair Musaicum Vintage Mysteries

Robert Blair, a local solicitor, is called on to defend two women, Marion Sharpe and her mother, who are accused of kidnapping and beating a fifteen-year-old Betty Kane. As the Sharpes are about to be interviewed by local police and Scotland Yard, represented by Inspector Alan Grant, Marion calls Blair and, although his firm does not do criminal cases, he agrees to come out to their home, "The Franchise", to look out for their interests during the questioning. The case against them is quite strong. The Sharpe women are accused that one night they approached Betty while she was waiting for a bus and offered her a lift. Then they allegedly took her to the Franchise, demanded that she become a domestic worker, and, upon her refusal, imprisoned her in the attic. Betty alleges that they starved and beat her until she escaped. As interest in the case builds over a few weeks, locals engage in overt hostility against the Sharpes: public snubbing, then graffiti on their walls, then smashing of the windows; the vandalism culminates when the Franchise is destroyed by arson. Blair slowly uncovers clue after clue in order to find holes in Betty's story, also pointing out her character flaws. But no matter how good of a job Blair does, case against Marion and her mother is strong and public pressure threatens to culminate.

Robert Blair, a local solicitor, is called on to defend two women, Marion Sharpe and her mother, who are accused of kidnapping and beating a fifteen-year-old Betty Kane. As the Sharpes are about to be interviewed by local police and Scotland Yard, represented by Inspector Alan Grant, Marion calls Blair and, although his firm does not do criminal cases, he agrees to come out to their home, "The Franchise", to look out for their interests during the questioning. The case against them is quite strong. The Sharpe women are accused that one night they approached Betty while she was waiting for a bus and offered her a lift. Then they allegedly took her to the Franchise, demanded that she become a domestic worker, and, upon her refusal, imprisoned her in the attic. Betty alleges that they starved and beat her until she escaped. As interest in the case builds over a few weeks, locals engage in overt hostility against the Sharpes: public snubbing, then graffiti on their walls, then smashing of the windows; the vandalism culminates when the Franchise is destroyed by arson. Blair slowly uncovers clue after clue in order to find holes in Betty's story, also pointing out her character flaws. But no matter how good of a job Blair does, case against Marion and her mother is strong and public pressure threatens to culminate.

The Franchise Affair is a 1948 mystery novel by Josephine Tey about the investigation of a mother and daughter accused of kidnapping a local young woman. In 1990, the UK Crime Writers' Association named it one of The Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time. Robert Blair, a local solicitor, is called on to defend two women, Marion Sharpe and her mother, who are accused of kidnapping and beating a fifteen-year-old war orphan named Betty Kane.

Robert Blair, a local solicitor, is called on to defend two women, Marion Sharpe and her mother, who are accused of kidnapping and beating a fifteen-year-old Betty Kane. As the Sharpes are about to be interviewed by local police and Scotland Yard, represented by Inspector Alan Grant, Marion calls Blair and, although his firm does not do criminal cases, he agrees to come out to their home, "The Franchise", to look out for their interests during the questioning. The case against them is quite strong. The Sharpe women are accused that one night they approached Betty while she was waiting for a bus and offered her a lift. Then they allegedly took her to the Franchise, demanded that she become a domestic worker, and, upon her refusal, imprisoned her in the attic. Betty alleges that they starved and beat her until she escaped. As interest in the case builds over a few weeks, locals engage in overt hostility against the Sharpes: public snubbing, then graffiti on their walls, then smashing of the windows; the vandalism culminates when the Franchise is destroyed by arson. Blair slowly uncovers clue after clue in order to find holes in Betty's story, also pointing out her character flaws. But no matter how good of a job Blair does, case against Marion and her mother is strong and public pressure threatens to culminate.

A festive atmosphere envelops the line of people waiting for one of the last showings of a popular London musical comedy. Excitement is so big, and crowd is so large that people are being carried rather than walking. As the line eventually reaches the box office one man drops on his knees and slowly spreads on the floor. People jump to help, thinking he had fainted, but get horrified when they see a knife stuck in his back. There are so many witnesses, but nobody saw anything and nobody can tell when it happened as the man has been held upright for a while, carried by the moving crowd. Inspector Alan Grant of Scotland Yard is summoned to investigate the case. Known for his wit and guile Inspector Grant will have to deal with a lot of false leads and clues, which will take him all the way to Scotland, in order to solve this mysterious murder case.

Robert Blair was about to knock off from a slow day at his law firm when the phone rang. It was Marion Sharpe on the line, a local woman of quiet disposition who lived with her mother at their decrepit country house, The Franchise. It appeared that she was in some serious trouble: Miss Sharpe and her mother were accused of brutally kidnapping a demure young woman named Betty Kane. Miss Kane's claims seemed highly unlikely, even to Inspector Alan Grant of Scotland Yard, until she described her prison - the attic room with its cracked window, the kitchen, and the old trunks - which sounded remarkably like The Franchise. Yet Marion Sharpe claimed the Kane girl had never been there, let alone been held captive for an entire month! Not believing Betty Kane's story, Solicitor Blair takes up the case and, in a dazzling feat of amateur detective work, solves the unbelievable mystery that stumped even Inspector Grant. Josephine Tey was a pseudonym used by Elizabeth Mackintosh, a Scottish author best known for her mystery novels. She also wrote as Gordon Daviot, under which name she wrote plays with an historical theme. In five of the mystery novels, all of which except the first she wrote under the name of Tey, the hero is Scotland Yard Inspector Alan Grant. (Grant appears in a sixth, The Franchise Affair, as a minor character.) The most famous of these is The Daughter of Time, in which Grant, laid up in hospital, has friends research reference books and contemporary documents so that he can puzzle out the mystery of whether King Richard III of England murdered his nephews, the Princes in the Tower. Grant comes to the firm conclusion that King Richard was totally innocent of the death of the Princes. In 1990, The Daughter of Time was selected by the British-based Crime Writers' Association as the greatest mystery novel of all time.

Robert Blair, a local solicitor, is called on to defend two women, Marion Sharpe and her mother, who are accused of kidnapping and beating a fifteen-year-old war orphan named Betty Kane. Set in Milford, the novel opens with the Sharpes about to be interviewed by local police and Scotland Yard, represented by Inspector Alan Grant (who is the protagonist of five other Tey novels). Marion calls Blair and, although his firm does not do criminal cases, he agrees to come out to their home, "The Franchise", to look out for their interests during the questioning. Betty's account is that during the Easter holidays, she went to stay with her aunt and uncle, the Tilsits, near Larborough. After a week, she wrote to her adoptive parents, the Wynns, to say she was enjoying herself and would spend another three weeks with the Tilsits. Then one evening, waiting for a bus, the Sharpe women approached her in their car and offered her a lift.

Marion Sharpe and her mother seem an unlikely duo to be found on the wrong side of the law. Quiet and ordinary, they have led a peaceful and unremarkable life at their country home, The Franchise. Betty Kane, a demure young woman, accuses them of kidnapping and abuse. It takes Robert Blair, solicitor turned amateur detective, to solve the mystery that lies at the heart of The Franchise Affair.