The Franchise Affair
by Josephine Tey
Robert Blair was about to walk away from a slow day at his law office when the phone rang. Marion Sharpe in the line was a quiet angry local woman who lived with her mother in their worn-out cottage, The Franchise. It turns out that she is in serious trouble: Mrs. Sharpe and her mother have been accused of brutally kidnapping a humiliating young woman named Betty Kane. Ms Kane's claims seemed unlikely until Scotland Yard told Inspector Alan Grant about her prison – the cracked window, kitchen and attic room with old trunks. However, Marion Sharpe claimed that Kane was never there, let alone held captive for a month! Blair, a lawyer who does not believe Betty Kane's story, gets to work and, with the dazzling success of his amateur detective work, solves an incredible mystery that even happened to Inspector Grant.
