Daughter of time

The protagonist of the novel is Scotland Yard inspector Alan Grant, who, after a leg fracture, was temporarily bedridden. Suffering from idleness, Grant, who was fond of the fact that from photographs could say a lot about the character of a person, decided to study reproductions from portraits of people with whom some secret was connected brought by his girlfriend, Marta Hallard. Among them, he is attracted by the image of King Richard III , for whom the glory of the villain, tyrant, despot and killer of his nephews - the princes Edward and Richard, was entrenched in history. Extremely interested in the fact that the psychological image he created from the portrait does not match the image that the story created, he decides to find out if Richard is really to blame for the crimes attributed to him.

To investigate, he asks his friends to bring him historical research on Richard III. He is assisted by a history-addict Brent Carradin, a friend of Martha. As a result, Grant and Karradin came to the conclusion that Richard III was not to blame for the crimes attributed to him, and the killing of the princes was committed after the death of Richard by order of the overthrown Henry VII , who did everything to defame his predecessor. According to them, the main work on which Richard’s accusation of murder is based - “The Story of Richard III” by Thomas More - was actually created by John Morton , Richard’s worst enemy, - in their opinion, the incomplete manuscript found after More was executed is an unfinished copy of Morton’s lost original.

At the end of the novel, Grant and Carradin learn that they are not the first to conclude that Richard was not involved in the killing of princes. The title of the novel “Daughter of Time” is a quote from the work of Sir Francis Bacon : “Truth is the daughter of time, not power” ^[1] . Arguments for the fact that Richard is not guilty of what he is accused of, the author took from the study of Sir "Richard III: his life & character" ^{[2] [3]} .

The main arguments presented in the novel to justify Richard:

• The murder of his nephews did not bring Richard any political advantage, since he was already the rightful king.
• There is no evidence that the princes were absent from the Tower when King Henry VII became king.
• Although the Parliament assembled by Henry VII condemned Richard III, there was no mention of princes. But the killing of princes by their predecessor could be a serious trump card in the hands of Henry VII.
• Henry VII never presented the bodies of the dead princes for public mourning and state funerals.
• The princes' mother, Elizabeth Woodville , remained on good terms with King Richard.
• The princes posed a much greater threat to Henry VII, since they had more rights to the throne.

After the publication of the book, Anthony Butcher called the book "one of the best, not in a year, but in all time." Also praised the book of Dorothy B. Hughes ^[4] . According to the version of the book “ 100 of the best detective novels of all time ” published by the British Association of Forensic Writers (CWA) in 1990, “Daughter of the Time” is the best work of the crime novel genre ^[5] .

According to historian John Norwich, the novel made “the greatest contribution to the glorification of Richard’s good name” ^[6] . At the same time, Alison Weir pointed out a number of flaws in Thay's reasoning, as well as the fact that the writer was not familiar with some of the then unpublished primary sources. In particular, in the work of the Italian De “De Occupatione Regni Anglie per Riccardum Tercium”, which was not published in England until 1969, the thesis that during the lifetime of Richard there were no rumors about the death of the princes ^[7] .

The novel was first published in Russian in 1992 in the translation of I. Vishnevskaya . Later, the book was also published in translations by L. Volodarskaya and I. Alekseeva. All publications: ^[8]

• Josephine Tay The daughter of time / translation by I. Vishnevskaya. - M .: Republic, 1992 .-- 160 p. - 75,000 copies. - ISBN 5-250-02144-1 .
• Josephine Tay Daughter of the time / translation by I. Alekseeva // An undertaker is urgently needed. - M .: Progress, 1992 .-- S. 393-511. - 75,000 copies. - ISBN 5-01-003316-X .
• Josephine Tay The daughter of time / translation by L. Volodarsky. - M .: Fluid FreeFly, 2004 .-- 256 s. - (A novel with a crime). - 7000 copies. - ISBN 5-98358-024-8 .
• Josephine Tay Daughter of time // Daughter of time. The case of the abduction of Betty Kane / translation by L. Volodarsky. - M .: AST; AST Moscow, 2010 .-- S. 5-182. - (An English detective is the best). - 4000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-17-063520-7 , ISBN 978-5-403-03451-7 .
• Josephine Tay The daughter of time / translation by L. Volodarsky. - M .: AST; Astrel; Vladimir: VKT, 2011 .-- 256 p. - (An English detective is the best). - 3000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-17-070254-1 , ISBN 978-5-271-31688-3 , ISBN 978-5-226-03405-3 .
• Josephine Tay Daughter of time // Mystification / translation by L. Volodarsky. - M .: AST, 2014 .-- S. 481-646. - (Classic Detective). - 2000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-17-084662-7 .

• Josephine Tay "Daughter of the Time" (neopr.) . Science Fiction Laboratory . Date of treatment August 22, 2014.
• Butler, Pamela J. The Mystery of Josephine Tey . R3.org . Richard III Society (Internet Archive). Date of treatment August 22, 2014. Archived April 15, 2011.
• Review Tor.com Date of treatment August 22, 2014.
• Review The Washington Post. Date of treatment August 22, 2014.
• Project Gutenberg Canada full text . Date of treatment August 22, 2014.
• Website dedicated to Josephine Tey . Date of treatment August 22, 2014.