In THE FRANCHISE AFFAIR, she has written a taut psychologivcal thriller, the emotional equivalent of a locked room mystery.

When THE FRANCHISE AFFAIR first was published, back in 1949, it provided a knowing glimpse of life in a tiny English village. Due to its modern theme and the suspense that Ms. Tey was able to build, this mystery has been re-issued several times over an entire half-century, proof in itself as to its excellence.

The story revolves around the accusation of a young girl against two older women, respectable women, mother and daughter, that these women had kidnapped her, imprisoned her, beat her. The older women insist that not only have they committed no criminal act, but that they never set eyes on the girl before this extraordinary accusation was made against them. The local media attention all but turns the women into witches in the public perception.

The general opinion locally is that this young girl could have no reason to lie about the women, that there would be no purpose for her to make such charges if these were not true, and no way for her to know such thorough detail as she claimed.

To the rescue, and almost against his will, a country lawyer agrees to represent the ladies. Yet how does one prove a negative, that his clients did not do these heinous acts, that they had no way even of knowing their purported victim?

In the process of making a defense that is more than the accuser’s word against the accused, the reader is given a peek into small town English rhythms and morality.

THE FRANCHISE AFFAIR makes for compelling reading, even if Ms. Tey, as the story’s creator, has too much control and too neatly finds “angels” and makes “miracles” (the nouns used in the tale) to resolve the dilemma.

Almost sixty years after the story’s first printing, some of the details have become charming anachronisms: the post-World War II patriotism, the lack of technology. No faxes, no cell phones, cut telephone hardwires–what a different plot it would have had to be if it were written today.

Rather than dragging down this mystery, these old-fashioned discrepancies make THE FRANCHISE AFFAIR even more enjoyable reading. And human emotions, which Josephine Tey understood as well as anyone, do not change over time, which means that THE FRANCHISE AFFAIR remains as compelling a psychological study as it had been when she wrote it in the 1940s.