"It was four o'clock of a spring evening and Robert Blair was thinking of going home......at 3.50 exactly on every working day Miss Tuff bore into his office a lacquer tray covered with a fair white cloth and bearing a cup of tea in blue patterned china and, on a plate to match, two biscuits; petit-beurre Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, digestive Tuesdays and Thursdays"
Into this peaceful routine, a routine of wills, small local disputes, golf, collecting the fish to take home for his Aunt Lin to cook, a routine with which Robert Blair, local solicitor, is content comes a sudden telephone call. Two women, Marion Sharpe and her mother have been accused of kidnapping and beating 
a young girl, Betty Kane. They need a solicitor and ask him to come out to their house, the Franchise. Robert is initially reluctant to become involved, recommending another solicitor, one more used to criminal law:
"You know what I feel like?" Marion broke in. "I feel like someone drowning in a river because she can't drag herself up onto the bank and instead of giving me a hand you point out that the other bank is much better to crawl out on"
The reader is not asked to make up their mind if Betty Kane is telling the truth or not. We know she is lying. This is something we have to take on faith. But why and what has really happened to her during the weeks she was missing from her, seemingly, happy home with her mother and her brother?
I first read The Franchise Affair when I was in my teens and remember very well that I sat and read it straight through totally absorbed and on the edge of my seat wondering how it was going to end and thrilled to bits when that nasty little girl got her come uppance. Now of course, I read it with a different eye and whereas before I thought Robert Blair was a bit of a stick in the mud, I see that he was not and my take on the story has changed focus. I also see how wonderfully delineated is the picture of life in a quiet English village and Milford, on the face of it a quintessential example of such a place, hides bigotry, gossip and nastiness as well as anywhere else with the villagers easily believing the Sharpes to be witches and outsiders and their reaction to Betty Kane's story.
So, the raison d'etre of this story is not just the unraveling of the mystery, the tracking down of witnesses and then the exposure of Betty Kane in court, but Robert's awakening from being a small town solicitor, the discovery that he is capable of much more, his love for Marion Sharpe and his knowledge that he can never return to his old life. This has gone forever
"....and then three things happened at once.
Mr Heseltine came in to say that Mrs Lomax wanted to alter her will again and would he go out to the farm immediately?
Aunt Lin rang up and asked him to call for the fish on his way home.
And Miss Tuff brought in his tea.
He looked for a long moment at the two digestive biscuits on his plate. Then with a gentle finality he pushed the tray out of his way and reached for the telephone".
This is one of the all time classic detective stories. It has been filmed, I remember seeing a very old black and white version on Saturday afternoon many moons ago with the husband and wife team of Michael Denison and Dulcie Grey (the most cut glass accents you ever heard), and also a BBC adaptation back in the 80's I believe with Rosalie Crutchley perfectly cast as the acerbic Mrs Sharpe. I have no recollection of who played Marion but do recall clearly that Robert was played by Patrick Malahide, eminently suitable for this part, but perhaps not for Inspector Roderick Alleyn who he also portrayed some years later.
I had forgotten just how good this book was when I started my re-read a few weeks ago having stumbled across an old Penguin copy in my local second hand bookshop. Once again I read it straight through, totally gripped by the excellence of the writing and characterisation. I now feel that I need to read more of Josephine Tey. I recall that The Daughter of Time, a 'solving' of the mystery of the death of the Princes in the Tower also fascinated me, as did Brat Farrar. There are others of hers that seem to have passed me by and am delighted to see there are enough to keep me going for a bit.
I feel another of my binges coming on...
