“Josephine Tey” was one of several pseudonyms used by Elizabeth Mackintosh (1896–1952), a Scottish author best known for her mystery novels. I have chosen to release this volume under this particular pseudonym since 5 of the 6 volumes were first published under it. (She published the first book as by “Gordon Daviot,” a name she primarily used for plays with historical themes.)

In five of six novels in this series, the hero is Scotland Yard Inspector Alan Grant. (Grant appears in a sixth, The Franchise Affair, as a minor character—but it is included here for completeness.) The most famous of these is The Daughter of Time, in which Inspector Grant, while 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.

The Daughter of Time was the last of Tey's books to be published during her lifetime. In 1990, the British Crime Writers' Association selected it as the greatest mystery novel of all time. One final crime novel, The Singing Sands, was found in her papers and published posthumously. It is last in this collection.

The Franchise Affair also has a historical context: although set in the 1940s, it is based on the 18th-century case of Elizabeth Canning. It also placed on the British Crime Writers' Association list of the 100 greatest mystery novels of all, taking 11th place.

About a dozen one-act plays and another dozen full-length plays were written under the name of Gordon Daviot. How she chose the name of Gordon is unknown, but Daviot was the name of a scenic locale near Inverness where she had spent many happy holidays with her family. Only four of her plays were produced during her lifetime. Richard of Bordeaux was particularly successful, running for 14 months and making a household name of its young leading man and director, John Gielgud. (Showing some self-referential humor, Tey writes of Inspector Alan Grant that “he had in his youth seen Richard of Bordeaux; four times he had seen it.”)

Enjoy one of the great mystery series of all time!

—John Betancourt

Publisher, Wildside Press LLC

www.wildsidepress.com

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