Tey, Josephine

(British, 1897–1952)

Elizabeth Macintosh wrote plays as Gordon Daviot and mysteries as Josephine Tey. She is generally regarded as one of the most interesting crime writers of her generation. In her explorations of unconventional relationships and sexuality, she is a clear predecessor of Ruth Rendell. Begin with To Love and Be Wise (1950), featuring the hero of five of her books, Inspector Alan Grant, who is investigating the disappearance of a handsome young photographer. In a triumphant display of smoke and mirrors, Tey produces an astonishing conclusion as she also does in the non-Grant novels, Miss Pym Disposes (1946), set in the hothouse environment of a women's college, Brat Farrar (1949) where a missing heir allegedly returns to the family fold, and The Franchise Affair (1948), the story of two women accused of abducting a young girl. The Daughter of Time (1951) re-examines of the story of the Princes in the Tower from a modern viewpoint.

Ruth Rendell, Margery Allingham, Minette Walters  VM