The Daughter of Time

「真相，是時間的女兒。」

如果鐵伊是對的，莎士比亞的《理查三世》將淪為一齣廉價可笑的大鬧劇

美國推理作家協會票選歷史推理小說第一名

　　斷腿住院的蘇格蘭場警探亞倫．葛蘭特，閒來無事看著英國國王理查三世的畫像──他是英國人民耳熟能詳的「駝子」、「血腥者」、「怪物」、「凶手」，四百年前謀殺了他兩個可愛的小姪兒，以確保他王位穩固的殘忍君王。不過相人有術的葛蘭特無法相信畫像中人是冷血變態的殺人犯，於是他決定大量閱讀歷史書籍，深究這樁早已無法追究犯行的謀殺案。

　　「每一個知道這是無稽之談的人們都不加以辯駁……一個完全不實的故事漸漸變成一則傳奇，而知道它不是事實的人們卻袖手旁觀、不發一言。」鐵伊書寫的人性惡意及愚昧，不存在於凶手，亦不存在於被害人，而是一代代人們的傳承和常態。

一部挑戰四百多年來英國人民既定印象的翻案故事

穩居歷史推理小說王座，格局與膽識更勝安伯托．艾可《玫瑰的名字》

★本書中譯本《時間的女兒》由臉譜出版

＂One of the best mysteries of all time＂ (The New York Times)--Josephine Tey recreates one of history’s most famous--and vicious--crimes in her classic bestselling novel, a must read for connoisseurs of fiction, now with a new introduction by Robert Barnard.

Inspector Alan Grant of Scotland Yard, recuperating from a broken leg, becomes fascinated with a contemporary portrait of Richard III that bears no resemblance to the Wicked Uncle of history. Could such a sensitive, noble face actually belong to one of the world’s most heinous villains--a venomous hunchback who may have killed his brother’s children to make his crown secure? Or could Richard have been the victim, turned into a monster by the usurpers of England’s throne? Grant determines to find out once and for all, with the help of the British Museum and an American scholar, what kind of man Richard Plantagenet really was and who killed the Little Princes in the Tower.

The Daughter of Time is an ingeniously plotted, beautifully written, and suspenseful tale, a supreme achievement from one of mystery writing’s most gifted masters.

作者簡介

約瑟芬．鐵伊Josephine Tey

　　一八九六年七月二十五日生於蘇格蘭因弗內斯，長大後在當地的皇家學院求學，於伯明罕的安斯地物理訓練學院接受三年訓練後，展開物理訓練講師的生涯。後來，鐵伊為了照顧住在洛克耐斯的父親，決定辭去教職並開始執筆寫作。

　　約瑟芬．鐵伊是三○年代以降、推理史上最輝煌的第二黃金時期，人稱「英國推理三女傑」中的其中一位，另外兩位女傑，阿嘉莎．克莉絲蒂與桃樂絲．榭爾絲，都是大產量、行銷驚人的作家，鐵伊卻窮盡一生之力只寫了八部水準齊一的推理小說，是推理史上極少數一生當中沒有任何失敗作品的大師。

一九五二年二月十三日逝於倫敦。

Elizabeth MacKintosh used two pen names during her writing career: Josephine Tey, who was also her Suffolk great-great-grandmother, and Gordon Daviot. She was born in 1897 in Inverness, Scotland, where she attended the Royal Academy. Miss MacKintosh later trained for three years at the Anstey Physical Training College in Birmingham, then began her teaching career as a physical training instructor. She gave up teaching to keep house for her father, who lived near Loch Ness, and pursue her writing. Her first book was The Man in the Queue (1929), published under the Gordon Daviot pseudonym, and it introduced the character of Inspector Grant, familiar now from the Tey novels. The author wrote chiefly under the signature of Gordon Daviot from 1929 to 1946, during which time her works included the play Richard of Bordeaux (1933), which ran for a year with John Gielgud in the lead part. The first of the Josephine Tey mysteries, A Shilling for Candies, was published in 1936 and was eventually followed by Miss Pym Disposes in 1947. Also included among the Tey mysteries are The Franchise Affair (1949), Brat Farrar (1949), To Love and Be Wise (1950), The Daughter of Time (1951), and The Singing Sands (1952). Elizabeth MacKintosh died in London on February 13, 1952.