A mystery, a thriller, and a low-keyed romance, this novel takes the form of a puzzle. Life follows its uneventful course at The Franchise, a somewhat decayed estate inherited by a mother and daughter, Mrs. Sharpe and Miss Marion Sharpe, until one day a young woman claims that she had been held prisoner there for weeks, forced to work for the two women of the house and beaten for refusing to work.
The Sharpes protest their innocence, but when the police bring the girl, Elisabeth Kane, to the house, they learn that she has correctly identified details of the interior that she could only have known, it seems, if she had been inside the house. The circumstantial evidence is hardly enough to make a court case against the Sharpes until a former serving girl comes forward claiming that she heard screaming from the attic and that she gave notice in order to escape from the unknown suffering in the house.
Marion Sharpe had wisely retained the legal services of Robert Blair of Blair, Hayward, and Bennet, Milford’s most long-established legal practice, as soon as she had learned of the accusation and the imminent arrival of the police investigators. Robert becomes the detective of the story as he searches for holes and contradictions in the false claims of the plaintiff. The role is unfamiliar to him, since his practice generally handles only wills and other kinds of documents, but Robert finds himself reinvigorated by the investigation.
Elisabeth Kane is soon an overnight media celebrity, and the Sharpes must endure public humiliation as everyone accepts the outrageous story against them. As newcomers to the close-knit small town, and as quiet residents who keep to themselves, they at first have no friends and defenders other than Robert, who sees immediately that Elisabeth Kane has fabricated the story to cover up some indiscretion. The community is united in its opinion that such an astonishing accusation can only be true, and among the lower elements vandalism and even violence soon breaks out against The Franchise.
Finding the truth proves to be a difficult task, but Robert’s increasing personal attachment to Marion and his acute sense of the suffering she bravely endures provide all the motivation he needs to stay on the case and see that justice is done.
The Franchise Affair, although it is a fine example of intelligent problem solving, makes an unusual romance in that it features a nearly wordless attraction between two middle-aged people who have never before been married. The narrator provides opinionated and old-fashioned commentary on the tabloid media and the changing social scene in England in the aftermath of World War II; the class consciousness of the story is skewed in the direction of the gentry. Clearly, the narrator disapproves of newfangled ways, creating a sense of nostalgia for days long past when servants were not a scarce commodity, when automobiles were not a necessity, and when rank had its privileges.
A near-wordless courtship somehow displays the right degree of propriety for the story, although the final resolution involves a twist that borders on feminism.
The third-person limited narrator provides insight into Robert Blair’s thoughts, and to a lesser extent into Marion’s, but does not explore the other characters; instead, the actions and motives of Elisabeth Kane and the Sharpe’s serving girl slowly emerge through the investigation and then through the trial that follows. Truth triumphs, and mendacity receives the exposure and excoriation it deserves.
In a style that uses unexpected wordplay, Josephine Tey first sets the world askew and then restores its balance in this well-crafted and intriguing tale.
Bibliography
Charney, Hanna. The Detective Novel of Manners: Hedonism, Morality, and the Life of Reason. Rutherford: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1981.
Roy, Sandra. Josephine Tey. Twayne’s English Authors, 277. Boston: Twayne, 1980.
Categories: British Literature, Detective Novels, Literature, Mystery Fiction, Novel Analysis
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