Best Historical Mysteries

Reading lists

25 of the best historical mysteries

Brat Farrar

Discover the new Penguin Crime and Espionage series 
 
An impostor has a fortune to win - but he may be in danger of losing his life... 
 
Twenty-one-year-old Brat Farrar is an orphan, alone in the world without friends or family. So when he is offered the unexpected chance to impersonate Patrick Ashby, the long-lost heir to a vast fortune on a country estate, he agrees. Brat is the spitting image of Patrick, who disappeared years ago. At first it seems Brat can pull off this incredible deception, until he starts to realise that he is in far greater peril than he ever imagined.

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.

A stranger enters the Ashby family home posing as Patrick Ashby, the heir to the family's sizeable fortune. The stranger, Brat Farrar, has been carefully coached on Patrick's mannerisms, appearance and every significant detail of Patrick's early life, up to his thirteenth year when he disappeared and was thought to have drowned himself. 
 
It seems as if Brat is going to pull off this most incredible deception - until old secrets emerge that threaten to jeopardise the imposter's plan and his very life...

The Franchise Affair

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

Permanent classics in the detective field . . . no superlatives are adequate.

An ingenious book ... The essential mystery is wonderfully established; the claustrophobic building-up of the apparently seamless case against the Sharpes is impeccably done.

A detective story with a very considerable difference. Ingenious, stimulating and very enjoyable.

Marion Sharpe and her mother are quiet and ordinary villagers, enjoying a peaceful life in their country home, the Franchise. Everything changes when a local schoolgirl accuses them of kidnap and abuse, describing the attic room of the house as her prison. Scotland Yard inspector Alan Grant is called to solve the mystery of the Franchise, but will he fall right in the middle of nightmarish affair that will change a town, and its locals' lives, forever?

Their country house will soon play host to a nightmare…

The Franchise Affair is an ingenious book ... The essential mystery is wonderfully established; the claustrophobic building-up of the apparently seamless case against the Sharpes is impeccably done

Permanent classics in the detective field . . . no superlatives are adequate

A detective story with a very considerable difference. Ingenious, stimulating and very enjoyable

As interesting and enjoyable a book as they will meet in a month of Sundays

Suspense is achieved by unexpected twists and extremely competent storytelling . . . credible and convincing

Really first class . . . a continual delight

Tey's style and her knack for creating bizarre characters are among the best in the field

Josephine Tey is one of the best-known and best-loved of all crime writers. She 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. In 1937 she returned to crime writing with A Shilling for Candles, but it wasn't until after the Second World War that the majority of her crime novels were published. Josephine Tey died in 1952, leaving her entire estate to the National Trust.

'An ingenious book' SARAH WATERS 
 
'Permanent classics in the detective field . . . no superlatives are adequate' THE NEW YORK TIMES 
 
Marion Shape and her mother are quiet and ordinary villagers, enjoying a peaceful life in their country home, the Franchise. Everything changes when a local schoolgirl accuses them of kidnap and abuse, describing the attic room of the house as her prison. Scotland Yard inspector Alan Grant is called to solve the mystery of the Franchise, but will he fall right in the middle of nightmarish affair that will change a town, and its locals' lives, forever? 
 
'Josephine Tey enjoys a category to herself' NEW STATESMAN

To Love and Be Wise

The most interesting of the great female writers of the Golden Age. This disarmingly low-key tale of a mysterious disappearance is the perfect introduction to her world

The definition of a classic, a real cut above. It hasn't aged a day

Will leave you desperate to re-read

Worth reading for its ingenious denouement

One of the best mysteries of all time

Nobody can beat Miss Tey at characterisation or elegance of style: this novel's a beauty

First-rate mystery, ably plotted and beautifully written

Tey's style and her knack for creating bizarre characters are among the best in the field

'The most interesting of the great female writers of the Golden Age. This disarmingly low-key tale of a mysterious disappearance is the perfect introduction to her world' VAL MCDERMID 
 
'The definition of a classic, a real cut above. It hasn't aged a day' JOSEPH KNOX 
 
When Hollywood-star photographer Leslie Searle disappears from a remote English village, gifted inspector Alan Grant is called in to investigate. But what would bring such a successful individual to the village? And was his vanishing his own doing, or did something eerie occur at the hands of an unsuspected culprit? 
 
'Will leave you desperate to re-read' SARAH HILARY 
 
'Worth reading for its ingenious denouement'TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT

The Daughter Of Time

Really first class . . . a continual delight

Josephine Tey enjoys a category to herself, as a virtuoso in the spurious . . . the nature of the deception on this occasion is too good to give away

Most people will find The Daughter Of Time as interesting and enjoyable a book as they will meet in a month of Sundays

A detective story with a very considerable difference.  Ingenious, stimulating and very enjoyable

Josephine Tey has always been absolutely reliable in producing original and mysterious plots with interesting characters and unguessable endings

'A detective story with a very considerable difference. Ingenious, stimulating and very enjoyable' SUNDAY TIMES 
 
'As interesting and enjoyable a book as they will meet in a month of Sundays' OBSERVER 
 
Scotland Yard inspector Alan Grant, recovering from a broken leg, becomes fascinated with a contemporary portrait of Richard III, believed to have brutally killed his brother's children - the Princes in the Tower - to make his crown secure. But is the hunchback with such a sensitive, noble face really one of the world's most heinous villains? Or was he the victim of one of the most insidious plots in history? 
 
'One of the best mysteries of all time' NEW YORK TIMES 
 
'Suspense is achieved by unexpected twists and extremely competent storytelling . . . credible and convincing' SPECTATOR

A BBC Radio crime collection

Josephine Tey: The Daughter of Time & other mysteries

Dramatisations and readings of five of Josephine Tey's classic mystery novels 
 
Scottish novelist and playwright Josephine Tey was one of the greatest Golden Age crime writers and the author of eight mysteries, including six featuring Scotland Yard inspector Alan Grant. The most famous of these, The Daughter of Time, was acclaimed the greatest crime novel of all time by the Crime Writers' Association. A full-cast dramatisation of this iconic story is included here, along with adaptations of four of her other much-loved mystery novels. 
 
A Shilling for Candles 
An independent-minded chief constable's daughter meets a suspected killer in this re-imagining of Josephine Tey's 1936 comedy thriller featuring Inspector Grant, starring Giles Fagan and Tilly Gaunt. 
 
Miss Pym Disposes 
Invited by her friend Henrietta to lecture at a physical education colllege, expert psychologist Miss Lucy Pym little suspects that among the healthy young women is someone with a mind sick enough to commit murder... Julia Foster stars as Miss Pym, with Joan Sims as Henrietta. 
 
The Franchise Affair 
A 15-year-old schoolgirl accuses Marion Sharpe and her mother of kidnapping and beating her. Can solicitor Robert Blair prove the women's innocence? An abridged reading by Edward Petherbridge. 
 
The Daughter of Time 
In hospital with a broken leg, Inspector Grant is bored. To pass the time, he decides to try and solve one of history's most famous puzzles: did Richard II really kill the Princes in the Tower? Peter Gilmore stars as Alan Grant. 
 
The Singing Sands 
Travelling to the Highlands by train, Inspector Grant ends up investigating the mysterious death of the man in compartment B7. An abridged reading by Paul Young of Tey's final novel, published posthumously in 1952. 
 
Also included is a Woman's Hour discussion of the life of Josephine Tey, with Andrew Taylor and fellow author Nicola Upson, whose bestselling crime novels feature Tey as the detective heroine. 
 
 
A Shilling for Candles 
Tisdall - Giles Fagan 
Erica - Tilly Gaunt 
Pottinger - Steve Hodson 
Bergoine - Stephen Thorne 
Grant - Ben Crowe 
Albert Clay - Harry Myers 
Hopgood - Geoffrey Whitehead 
Martha - Frances Jeater 
Dramatised by John Fletcher 
Directed by Tabitha Potts 
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 5 December 1998 
 
Miss Pym Disposes 
Lucy Pym - Julia Foster 
Henrietta Hodge - Joan Sims 
Teresa Desterro - Julia Swift 
Miss Lux - Polly James 
Miss Wragg - Zelah Clarke 
Madame Lefevre - Margaret Robertson 
Fröken Gustavson - Diana Olsson 
Miss Meek - Eva Stuart 
Miss Nash - Deborah Makepeace 
Miss Innes - Moir Leslie 
Miss Rouse - Susan Sheridan 
Miss O'Donnell - Felicity Hayes-McCoy 
Miss Dakers - Denica Fairman 
Miss Gage - Caroline Gruber 
Mr Nash - Michael Deacon 
Mrs Nash - Eva Stuart 
Rick - Paul Sirr 
Dramatised by Elizabeth Proud 
Directed by Glyn Dearman 
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 30 December 1987 
 
The Franchise Affair 
Read by Edward Petherbridge 
Abridged by Pat McLoughlin 
Editor: Sally Feldman 
Music: Bush's Music for Orchestra 
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 7-23 May 1991 
 
The Daughter of Time 
Alan Grant - Peter Gilmore 
Nurse Ingham - Frances Jeater 
Nurse Darroll - Jill Lidstone 
Marta Hallard - Rosalind Shanks 
Brent Carradine - Simon Hewitt 
Richard - Steve Hodson 
Tyrrel - Nigel Lambert 
Brackenbury - Lewis Stringer 
Lady Paston - Miranda Forbes 
Edward - Graham Faulkner 
Matron - Katherine Parr 
Williams - Stuart Organ 
Morton - Peter Tuddenham 
Buckingham - Alex Jennings 
Stillington - James Thomason 
Sir John - Alaric Cotter 
Dramatised by Neville Teller 
Directed by Graham Gauld 
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 30 August 1982 
 
The Singing Sands 
Read by Paul Young 
Produced by Eilidh McCreadie 
First broadcast BBC Radio 7, 17-20 March 2008 
 
Woman's Hour discussion 
Presented by Jane Garvey 
With Nicola Upson and Andrew Taylor 
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 29 February 2008

A Shilling For Candles

A classic mystery from the Golden Age of detective fiction.

Beneath the sea cliffs of the south coast, suicides are a sad but common fact. Yet even the hardened coastguard knows something is wrong when a beautiful young film actress is found lying dead on the beach one morning. 
 
Inspector Grant has to take a more professional attitude: death by suicide, however common, has to have a motive - just like murder...

Miss Pym Disposes

Tey's style and her knack for creating bizarre characters are among the best in her field

Elegantly written, leisurely, amusing, penetrating ... with a thumping terminal surprise!

A classic murder mystery from the Golden Age of detective fiction, written by genre legend Josephine Tey. 
 
Leys Physical Training College is famous for its excellent discipline and its spectacularly athletic students. Miss Lucy Pym, expert psychologist, is pleased and flattered to be invited to lecture there - even if the Olympian splendour of the students leaves her feeling just a little inadequate. 
 
But a nasty accident spoils the occasion, and suddenly Miss Pym must turn her intellect to the unpleasant suspicion that, among all these healthy young students, there lurks an incurably sick mind...

The Man In The Queue

The Man In The Queue is as fresh and original as ever, 85 years on. Never one to tie herself to genre conventions, Tey builds on character and circumstances to create an enthralling cat-and-mouse hunt.

Inspector Alan Grant, my favourite detective of all time, painstakingly, fascinatingly identifies the body then chases suspects up to the Highlands of Scotland and all around the town.

Outside a London theatre a throng of people wait expectantly for the last performance of a popular musical. But as the doors open at last, something spoils all thought of entertainment: a man in the queue is found murdered by the deadly thrust of a stiletto...

The Singing Sands

Beautifully written and insistently readable.

Josephine Tey has always been absoluteely reliable in producing original and mysterious plots with interesting characters and unguessable endings

Really first class... a continual delight

On his train back to Scotland for a well-earned rest, Inspector Grant learns that a fellow passenger, one Charles Martin, has been found dead. It looks like a case of misadventure - but Grant is not so sure. Teased by some enigmatic lines of verse that the deceased had apparently scrawled on a newspaper, he follows a trail to the remote Outer Hebrides. 
 
And though it is the end of his holiday, it is also the beginning of an intriguing investigation into the bizarre circumstances shrouding Charles Martin's death...

Suspense is achieved by unexpected twists and extremely competent story-telling . . . credible and convincing

Josephine Tey enjoys a category to herself, as a virtuoso in the spurious ... the nature of the deception on this occasion is too good to give away

Really first class . . . a continual delight

Ingenious, stimulating and very enjoyable

A stranger enters the inner sanctum of the Ashby family posing as Patrick Ashby, the heir to the family's sizeable fortune. The stranger, Brat Farrar, has been carefully coached on Patrick's mannerisms, appearance and every significant detail of Patrick's early life, up to his thirteenth year when he disappeared and was thought to have drowned himself. 
 
It seems as if Brat is going to pull off this most incredible deception until old secrets emerge that threaten to jeopardise the imposter's plan and his very life...

G.K. Chesterton

A. E. W. Mason

Victor Whitechurch

Edgar Wallace

Marie Belloc Lowndes

Anna Katharine Green

Josephine Tey

Andrew Sachs

Richard Pasco

Olivier Pierre

Crawford Logan

Moir Leslie

Benedict Cumberbatch

Alexander John

David Davis

Brenda Bruce

Mary O'Farrell

Teresa Gallagher

Julia Foster

Joan Sims

Full Cast

Seven BBC Radio Adaptations of Classic Crime Mysteries

A collection of thrilling tales from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, including six full-cast dramas and a short story read by Benedict Cumberbatch 
 
In the first half of the 20th century, the detective story exploded in popularity. Innovative authors penned whodunits, whydunits and clue-puzzle stories, and introduced iconic sleuths, creating works that would later become classics. This Golden Age, which reached its height during the 1920s and ’30s, saw the crowning of the ‘Queens of Crime’, the formation of the Detection Club and the laying down of new rules of crime writing – and the fiction produced during this period has had lasting appeal and influence, fundamentally shaping the ‘cosy crime’ novels of today. 
 
This collection gathers together seven sensational stories from Golden Age authors – some well-known, others unjustly overlooked – beginning with three by founding members of the Detection Club. The Blue Cross by G.K. Chesterton features the first appearance of one of the best-loved detectives in fiction: Father Brown, as he pursues arch-villain and master of disguise Flambeau. Andrew Sachs stars as the insightful cleric, with Olivier Pierre as his wily nemesis. 
 
In The House of the Arrow by A.E.W. Mason, starring Richard Pasco and Moir Leslie, a young woman living in Dijon is accused of murder, leading her lawyer to call in the Sûreté’s best officer, Inspector Hanaud. 
 
Narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch, The Affair of the German Dispatch-Box by Victor Whitechurch sees daring Edwardian sleuth Thorpe Hazell using his locomotive expertise to solve an ingenious and audacious railway crime. 
 
A legendary assassin and vigilante returns from the dead in The Ringer by Edgar Wallace, and Scotland Yard must find him before he exacts his revenge. David Davis stars as the ‘Gaunt Stranger’, and Alexander John as the tenacious Inspector Wembury. 
 
In An Unrecorded Instance by Marie Belloc Lowndes, Hetty Mingle ignores her dying mother's advice about fortune hunters – but will she end up regretting it? Starring Mary O’Farrell and Brenda Bruce. 
 
The Golden Slipper by Anna Katharine Green finds New York debutante (and reluctant detective) Violet Strange tasked with investigating four rich young women suspected of multiple thefts. Teresa Gallagher stars as the socialite sleuth, with Crawford Logan as her client, Driscoll. 
 
Concluding this collection is Miss Pym Disposes by Josephine Tey, which finds psychologist Lucy Pym investigating a death at a women’s physical education college. Starring Julia Foster as Miss Pym and Joan Sims as her friend, headmistress Henrietta Hodge, this dark, engrossing psychological thriller is a late Golden Age gem. 
 
First published 1910 (The Blue Cross), 1912 (The Affair of the German Dispatch-Box), 1915 (The Golden Slipper), 1924 (The House of the Arrow, An Unrecorded Instance), 1929 (The Ringer), 1946 (Miss Pym Disposes) 
 
© 2026 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2026 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Josephine Tey

Books by Josephine Tey

Articles featuring Josephine Tey

25 of the best historical mysteries

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter