Josephine Tey Books In Order

Publication Order of Inspector Alan Grant Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Anthologies

Josephine Tey was the pen name of author Elizabeth Mackintosh, who used to write her novels under this pseudonym. She was famous for writing mystery novels during the time of World War I. She used to adopt another pseudonym of Gordon Daviot for writing interesting mystery novels. The name Josphine Tey is coined by the names of her mother Josephine and an English grandmother’s surname. Tey was born in the year 1896 in Inverness, Scotland, UK. She has written around six novels based on mystery and thriller genres most of which revolve around the life of the fictional character Alan Grant who is an Inspector in the Scotland Yard. Tey was the daughter of Josephine and Colin Mackintosh. She attended the Inverness Royal Academy and later the Ansten Physical Training College in Birmingham. After her graduation, Tey began teaching physical training in a number of schools in Scotland and England. She had to give his career as a teacher and return back to Inverness in order to look after her sick father. This was the turning point in the life of Josephine Tey as she tried her hand at writing mystery novels. She began to feel the ease of writing novels by staying at homes and decided to take up writing as her career. Tey wrote her first novel under the pseudonym of Gordon Daviot featuring Scotland Yard’s Inspector Alan Grant as the hero. Other than that, all the remaining novels were written under the name of Josephine Tey.

Tey is famous for her novel ‘The Daughter of Time’ which was published in the year 1950. The novel was so successful that it was voted as the greatest mystery novel of all time in the year 1990 by the Crime Writers’ Association. The novel depicts the efforts of Alan Grant in solving the murder mystery of the Princes in the Tower of England. Even though Alan is laid up in hospital, he has friends outside who help him in researching reference books and documents so that he can solve the puzzle of the murders. Grant suspects King Richard III to be the man behind the murders of his nephews, but later comes to the conclusion that he had nothing to do with the murder of the Princes. The previous novel titled ‘The Franchise Affair’ was also listed in the list of top 100 mystery novels of all time. Tey has also written successful plays, including the ‘Richard of Bordeaux’ which ran continuously for 14 months. Tey died at the age of 55 in the year 1952 in London. She never married anyone and remained conserved throughout her life. Her friends described her as a shy woman and somewhat mysterious in character. Some close ones believed that she was aware of being fatally ill and was not going to recover. Despite that, her sudden death came as a surprise to everyone. Her initial novel ‘A Shilling for Candles’ was adapted into a film with the name ‘Young and Innocent’ by Alfred Hitchcock in the year 1937. The Franchise Affair was also made into a movie in 1950 and another novel titled ‘Brat Farrar’ filmed as ‘Paranoic’ in the year 1963. A number of Tey’s works have also been dramatized for the radio.

The novel titled ‘The Franchise Affair’ was published in the year 1948 as a mystery novel. It revolved around the investigation by Inspector Alan Grant of the Scotland Yard about the kidnapping of a local woman. A young woman named Marion Sharpe and her mother are accused of kidnapping a local woman named Betty Kane. Marion lives with her mother at The franchise, a decrepit country house. Even though Marion claimed not to have committed the crime, Inspector Grant does not believe her and they the mother and daughter seemed to be in serious trouble. Marion calls Robert Blair for help, who is a solicitor at a law firm. Blair did not believe the claims of Betty Kane as Marion describes The Franchise to be an attic room having cracked windows, old trunks and a kitchen. She claimed that Betty was lying about being there and held captive for one month. Robert Blair takes up the case and decides to solve the unbelievable mystery. He performs certain amateur detective work and solves the mystery which stumps Inspector Alan Grant. The novel was inspired by the case of Elizabeth Canning of the 18th Century who was believed to be kidnapped and help captive for a month while she was working as a maidservant. The plot of the novel was set in the post Second World War era. The success of the novel saw it to be adapted for a movie of the same name in the year 1951. Actor Micheal Dension played the role Robert Blair while actress Ann Stevens was chosen to play Betty Kane. Dulcie Gray and Marjorie Fielding were asked to play the role of Marion Sharpe and her mother respectively. The novel was remade into two similar TV versions with a different set of actors in the years 1962 and 1988. A radio version of the novel was also made in 2005.

The other novel to feature the main protagonist Inspector Alan Grant was ‘The Daughter of Time’. It was published in the year 1950. The novel concerns Inspector Grant’s investigation of the crimes of King Richrad III of England. The opening plot of the novel depicts Grant as being hospitalized with a broken leg. He feels bored of lying on bed bed all day. One of his friends actress Marta Hallard suggests him to research historical mysteries in order to keep himself busy. She hands some pictures of historical importance to Alan Grant, knowing about his interests. He gets intrigued by looking at a portrait of King Richard III. By looking at his portrait, Grant comes to the conclusion that King Richard is a wise and gentle man. He thinks that he can read anyone’s character by just looking at his appearance. But, King Richard III is believed to be a cruel murderer. He takes the help of his friends to study the life of King Richard III and tries to dig deep into the case of the murders of the King’s nephews, The Princes of the Tower. Brent Carradine is a young researcher from America and works in the British Museum. He helps Inspector Grant to gather information about the historical documents. Grant becomes successful in finding the truth behind the set up of King Richard’s image as a murderer. He reveals Tudor to be the fabricator of the allegations. The novel was regarded as one of the important books to be ever written by several noteworthy authors. It raised the issue of historical importance and the false allegations on the King of England. The book saw huge success even after the death of Josephine Tey and went on to feature as the number one book in the list of the top 100 crime novels of all time by the Crime Writers’ Association of UK in the year 1990.