The Daughter of Time (1951)

Inspector Alan Grant, confined to a hospital bed, turns to the case of Richard III and the princes in the Tower. This is the extreme historical outlier: the witnesses have been dead for centuries, leaving records, inherited reputations and arguments about who benefited from a particular account. Tey makes the detective’s changing interpretation entertaining, but it remains a historical mystery novel with a case to argue. Read critically for how a story becomes accepted, rather than treating its verdict as settled history.