Negative Positive
Title: One of the all-time greats
Review: A teenage girl, missing for weeks, reappears with a story of being kidnapped and imprisoned by an eccentric mother and daughter; the latter enlists a bored country lawyer to defend them. Tey's Inspector Alan Grant takes a back seat in this book to the main characters. The plot is based on an actual eighteenth-century case, but Tey updates it and makes it fully believable. Not only are all the characters (even minor ones) beautifully drawn, but the various settings in which the story takes place are memorably described. The book is not only a whacking good mystery with a thoroughly satisfying solution, but also a vivid picture of post-WW II Britain, and a commentary on the power of the popular press that's more pertinent than ever today. This one is high on my Top 10 Mysteries of All Time list.
Is the review positive or negative? 