The Daughter Of Time: A gripping historical mystery

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The Inspector has a canny knack for reading faces and as he looks upon Richard III’s portrait he doesn’t see a murderer, but more of a haunted man.

I've read my share of royal history, both fictional and historical, so I enjoyed this counter approach to the subject. I doubt most Inspectors or most anyone would either find private insurance schemes keeping them in bed in a single room for some weeks. Folio commissioned Hokyoung Kim for the artwork, while the late author’s wife, Wendy Benchley, provides a fascinating new introduction. To get ready for the conversation, we’ve compiled some introductory information on this classic mystery exploring the Princes in the Tower. On the second level, The Daughter of Time operates as a polemic: “Could 14 million history books possibly be wrong?

Though there are elements of her arguments with which I agree, even the main hook of her novel--that the most famous surviving portrait of Richard III shows the face of a man who could not possibly commit such a murder--is flawed. I imagine he and Carradine doing the same with the 3-D reconstruction we have now, marvelling at the latest Great Discovery. In 2012, archaeologists excavated a skeleton with spinal curvature and battle wounds near that spot in the parking lot.

The first of these, The Man in the Queue (1929) was published under the pseudonym of Gordon Daviot, whose name also appears on the title page of another of her 1929 novels, Kif; An Unvarnished History. In The Daughter of Time Scotland Yard Inspector Alan Grant is bedridden in hospital after a fall which broke his leg and damaged his spine.As well as books, Smith’s work has appeared in numerous publications, including the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Guardian, the Financial Times and GQ among others. At least I had seen the TV series about Henry Tudor (Henry VII) which at least allowed me to think of the actors' faces for certain characters like Elizabeth Woodville. Nothing new to us, perhaps, but a particularly fresh approach in 1951, when history was often venerated as fact, rather than the saga of the winners. Inspector Grant remarks several times throughout the story that a detective’s job is to understand how character, motive, psychology and circumstance guide behavior. It’s an odd thing but when you tell someone the true facts of a mythical tale they are indignant not with the teller but with you.

His eye catches on a portrait of Richard III, who has the reputation of a monster but the face, Grant thinks, of a judge. Please don't be put off by the fact that this is about such a confusing time in English history, or what you know from your schooldays about Richard III, or even by the fact that all the action takes place in Grant's hospital bedroom. To quiet his “prickles of boredom,” an actress friend brings him a collection of portraits attached to historical controversies: Grant, after years in the police force, has a fascination with faces.

Essentially, this is a whodunit from a crime that took place in 1483, as well as an insightful example of propaganda and how history can be re-written by the powers that be. In addition to certain standard Google cookies, reCAPTCHA sets a necessary cookie (_GRECAPTCHA) when executed for the purpose of providing its risk analysis.