The Franchise Affair

‘The new crime and espionage series from Penguin Classics makes for a mouth-watering prospect’ Daily Telegraph

Penguin Books is reviving the iconic Penguin Modern Classics ‘Crime and Espionage’ series, first published 75 years ago. Featuring John le Carré, Georges Simenon, Josephine Tey, Edogawa Rampo and more, these iconic paperbacks celebrate the endless variety and unique appeal of one of fiction’s greatest genres.

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Abducted, beaten, hidden in an attic, a young woman stages an audacious escape. But is her story everything she claims it to be?

Fifteen-year-old Betty Kane can recall every detail of the room where she says she was held at the country house known as The Franchise – even the crack in its round window. But her alleged kidnappers, a quiet-living mother and daughter, claim they have never seen her before. Somebody has to be lying. But who? As the case sparks a media frenzy, it is up to unassuming village solicitor Robert Blair to find out.

Josephine Tey began to write full-time after the successful publication of her first novel, The Man in the Queue (1929), which introduced Inspector Grant of Scotland Yard. It wasn’t until after the Second World War that the majority of her crime novels were published. Born in Inverness, Tey died in 1952, leaving her entire estate to the National Trust.