The Daughter of Time

The Daughter of Time is a detective novel by the English writer Josephine Tey, published in 1951. It was the last of her books to appear in her lifetime, and Inspector Grant is a character who appears in five other novels by the same author.

Inspector Alan Grant is confined to a hospital bed with a broken leg and is thoroughly bored. Marta Hallard, an actress and a friend of his, suggests that he should amuse himself by looking into a historical mystery, and brings him some portraits.

Grant has always believed that he can read a face, and the face of Richard III does not look to him like that of a cruel murderer. What he wants to know is why everybody is so certain that the king killed his brother's children.

With help from friends and from books, he conducts the investigation from his bed, and it becomes a real piece of historical detection. In 1990 the book was voted number one in a list of the top hundred crime novels compiled by the British Crime Writers' Association.