Line #23 Literature/TheDaughterOfTime


1	[[quoteright:150:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/richardiii_3387.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:150:This being the face in question.]]
3
4	-> ''Truth is the daughter of time.''
5
6	This 1951 novel by Creator/JosephineTey is one of the more unusual historical mysteries out there. Flat on his back in the hospital after falling through a trapdoor, Scotland Yard detective Alan Grant is bored. ''Really'' bored.
7
8	A kind friend, knowing Grant's ability to gauge someone's character by their face, sends him a pack of postcard portraits of famous historical figures. Most of them Grant pegs accurately enough, but he finds himself fascinated by one man, whose expression is sombre and reminds Grant of a judge. He flips the postcard over --
9
10	It's [[UsefulNotes/RichardIII Richard III]]. Yes, ''that'' Richard III, Shakespeare's Theatre/RichardIII, Princes-in-the-Tower Richard III. Having identified one of English history's most notorious murderers as a judge is just embarrassing, so Grant promptly resolves to get at [[TheFateOfThePrincesInTheTower the truth behind the murders]]. Armed with historical romances, [[Theatre/AManForAllSeasons the sainted More]] and a fluffy American postgrad, he begins a crusade against people who didn't do their historical research.
11
12	Practically the bible of the Richard III Society.
13	----
14	!! Provides examples of:
15
16	* AmateurSleuth: Played with. Grant is a professional detective, but an amateur historian. Brent Carradine is a professional historian but an amateur detective.
17	* BeautyEqualsGoodness: The jumping-off point for the novel is essentially that Richard III is too good-looking to have killed his nephews (and later it's argued that Henry VII is ''just'' the shifty-looking sort of person to have done so).
18	* ClearTheirName: What the investigation ended up being.
19	* ConvictedByPublicOpinion: Richard was, and whether he killed the princes or not, that really ''pisses Grant off''.
20	* EvidenceScavengerHunt: Carradine does all the legwork, seeing as how Grant has broken his.
21	* ExtremelyColdCase: Twentieth-century detective Grant re-investigates a 450-year-old murder.
22	* HappilyEverBefore: In-universe, the historical novel ''The Rose of Raby'' ends at a cheerful family gathering before the early death of UsefulNotes/EdwardIV.
23	* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: Grant questions why Richard ''didn't'' do this.
24	%%* ShownTheirWork
25	* SoWasX:
26	-->"According to the history books he was a man of great ability."\
27	"So was Literature/{{Bluebeard}}."\
28	"And considerable popularity, it would seem."\
29	"So was Bluebeard."\
30	"A very fine soldier, too," Grant said wickedly, and waited. "No Bluebeard offers?"[[note]][[AllohistoricalAllusion Incidentally]], the historical character most identify with Bluebeard, UsefulNotes/GillesDeRais, was indeed a well-respected medieval warrior before his infamy.[[/note]]
31	* StockUnsolvedMysteries: Explores TheFateOfThePrincesInTheTower, one of the great mysteries of history.
32	* TheSummation: Grant writes out the pros and cons of the main two suspects in the boys' murders.
33	* TakeThat: Aside from the obvious, Grant makes some passing jabs at UsefulNotes/MaryQueenOfScots and UsefulNotes/RichardTheLionheart and mocks the popular treatment of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonypandy_riots Tonypandy riots]].
34	** And the “persecution” of the Covenanters.
35	* WriterOnBoard: It will not surprise anyone to know that Josephine Tey thought Richard III to be a much-maligned man.
36	* WrittenByTheWinners: Grant notes that most of the stories vilifying Richard date from after his battlefield defeat by Henry VII. He and his friends discuss other historical events--including the Boston Massacre and the Tonypandy riots--as cases of the winning side determining how events are interpreted.

Context Literature / TheDaughterOfTime