Mystery Book Club

VIRTUAL AND IN-PERSON EVENT

The Franchise Affair by Josephine Tey

Marion Sharpe lives with her mother in a run-down country house called The Franchise, and the two women are stunned to learn that they have been accused of brutally kidnapping an unassuming young woman named Betty Kane. Miss Kane’s claims seem highly unlikely until she describes the room where she was held captive. Its cracked window, kitchen and old trunks sound just like the attic at The Franchise. Yet Marion Sharpe claims the Kane girl has never been there, let alone been held captive for a month.

Spring 2025 – Mystery without Murder – Detective novels are almost always about murder.  The loss of life focuses the reader’s attention as no other crime can. Yet some of the most popular writers of the genre of the 20^th and 21^st centuries – including grande dames Josephine Tey and Dorothy L. Sayers – have written mysteries without murders. This spring we'll read five — one from Tey and four from some contemporary authors.