23-459: Innocent Blood may refer to: Innocent Blood (novel) , a 1980 novel by P. D. James Innocent Blood (album) , a 1989 album by Resurrection Band Innocent Blood (film) , a 1992 film by John Landis Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Innocent Blood . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change
46-487: A means of determining an initial assessment of a person's character. Grant's first impetus towards an intellectual investigation of whether Richard III really had the two main heirs to his dead brother's throne callously murdered in the Tower of London is his early certainty that Richard's face could not possibly be that of someone who would perform such a base crime as the cold-blooded murder of his two young nephews. However, this
69-540: A novel in which crime might figure but would not be the mainspring of the action. The work is a great success with the public and with the connoisseurs. ... The diverse characters are admirably drawn and the author's fingerwork in tying and untying threads is as deft as her touches of sordid life and as nimble as her prose." Though critical of the more genre-based elements of the plot, Maureen Howard in The New York Times of April 27, 1980, wrote: "The curious thing
92-596: A portrait of King Richard III . He prides himself on being able to read a person's character from his appearance, and King Richard seems to him a gentle, kind and wise man. Why is everyone so sure that he was a cruel murderer? With the help of other friends and acquaintances, Grant investigates Richard's life and the case of the Princes in the Tower , testing out his theories on the doctors and nurses who attend to him. Grant spends weeks pondering historical information and documents with
115-494: Is a crime novel by English writer P. D. James . Unlike her Adam Dalgliesh mysteries it is not a detective story but closer to a psychological thriller and was the first of James' novels to step outside the detective genre. (She had published a non-fiction account of a real crime, The Maul and the Pear Tree , in 1971.) It follows the story of a young woman searching for her biological roots, having known since childhood that she
138-623: Is a 1951 detective novel by Josephine Tey , concerning a modern police officer's investigation into the alleged crimes of King Richard III of England . It was the last book Tey published in her lifetime, shortly before her death. In 1990 it was voted number one in The Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time list compiled by the British Crime Writers' Association . In 1995 it was voted number four in The Top 100 Mystery Novels of All Time list compiled by
161-417: Is just an initial 'gut feel', the original spark that makes Grant want to know more about (and thus ultimately research and investigate) the true character and background of Richard III rather than any of the other historical personae of whom his friend Marta Hallard has provided him with images (in order to alleviate his bed-ridden boredom). The subsequent police-like investigation that Grant undertakes during
184-424: Is that P. D. James is gifted in the techniques of the traditional novel, can create place, gives great attention to significant detail and the pacing of her narrative, but seems to mistrust her own art and run for the cover of artifice. London is beautifully seen, the bus routes and parks, the smart dinner party and third-rate hotel. The city as she renders it is more than background, more than a movie set: vandals roam
207-611: The Croyland Chronicle and to the Lord Chancellor of France , and ultimately to Tudor sympathiser John Morton . They also propose that Morton was the actual author of Thomas More 's biography of Richard, suggesting that the incomplete manuscript found after More's death was an unfinished copy by More of Morton's lost original. They conclude that the princes probably remained alive throughout Richard's reign and were later killed by Henry. On its publication Anthony Boucher called
230-721: The Battle of Bosworth Field , by which time Richard was dead and the princes were now in Henry VII 's custody in the Tower. Grant comes to the conclusion that Henry is a much more likely perpetrator of the dual regicide than Richard when the question of 'who instigated the killing of the princes?' is approached from the traditional crime detection perspective of means, motive and opportunity – particularly motive. Tey's pro-Richard arguments repeat some of those made in Clements Markham 's 1906 book Richard III: his life & character, reviewed in
253-504: The Mystery Writers of America . Scotland Yard Inspector Alan Grant (a character who also appears in five other novels by the same author) is feeling bored while confined to bed in hospital with a broken leg. Marta Hallard, an actress friend of his, suggests he should amuse himself by researching a historical mystery. She brings him some pictures of historical characters, aware of Grant's interest in human faces. He becomes intrigued by
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#1732845611866276-558: The book "one of the permanent classics in the detective field.... one of the best, not of the year, but of all time". Dorothy B. Hughes also praised it, saying it is "not only one of the most important mysteries of the year, but of all years of mystery". The novel is listed as number one on the CWA's Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time list and number four on the MWA's Top 100 Mystery Novels of All Time list. Winston Churchill stated in his History of
299-532: The centuries by multiple famous literate thinkers such as Aulus Gellius and Abraham Lincoln (direct quotes); Sir Francis Bacon (enhanced quote: "Truth is the daughter of time, not of authority." ); and Thales (paraphrase: "It is time that has discovered, or in due course will discover, all things that lie hidden.") to name just a few. The novel also explores and pastiches different types of historical writing. In his research, Grant starts with children's history books, then moves on to general popular histories and
322-514: The help of Brent Carradine, a likable young American researcher working in the British Museum . Using his detective's logic, he comes to the conclusion that the claim of Richard being a murderer is a fabrication of Tudor propaganda, as is the popular image of the King as a monstrous hunchback. The book explores how history is constructed, and how certain versions of events come to be widely accepted as
345-411: The light of recent research . The main arguments presented in the book in defence of King Richard: Grant and his American collaborator argue that there is little evidence of resistance to Richard's rule (ignoring Buckingham's rebellion ). They allow that there were rumours of his murdering the princes during his lifetime, but they decide that the rumours had little circulation, and attribute them to
368-405: The link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Innocent_Blood&oldid=544207177 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Innocent Blood (novel) Innocent Blood ( 1980 )
391-433: The remainder of the novel in order to find some circumstantial evidence that Richard (or anyone else) disposed of the princes reveals that there never was a Bill of Attainder , coroner's inquest , or any other legal proceeding that contemporaneously accused – much less convicted – Richard III of any foul play against the Princes in the Tower . It also points out that the princes were not reported missing by anyone until after
414-463: The same name. Other alleged historical myths touched upon by the author are the commonly believed (but false) story that troops fired on the public at the 1910 Tonypandy Riot , the traditional depiction of the Boston Massacre , the martyrdom of Margaret Wilson and the life and death of Mary, Queen of Scots . Grant adopts the term "Tonypandy" to describe widely believed historical myths, such as
437-461: The streets at dawn, and so do enigmatic ladies in evening dress; it is alive with terror and good fortune." In 2008, Tana French chose Innocent Blood as one of her "top 10 maverick mysteries", in an article for The Guardian , ranking it alongside such works as The Talented Mr. Ripley and The Daughter of Time as an example of a crime novel that defies "all the thriller's conventions". The Daughter of Time The Daughter of Time
460-549: The supposed shootings at the Tonypandy Riots and believes popular accounts of Richard's activities to fall into this category. This line of thought reflects a dislike and distrust of emotional popular narratives concerning supposed historical injustices which also surfaces in Tey's other works. In this novel, as in her other works such as The Franchise Affair and Miss Pym Disposes , Josephine Tey relies partially on physiognomy as
483-476: The truth, despite a lack of evidence and/or any logical plausibility. Grant comes to understand the ways in which myths or legends are constructed, and how in this case, the victorious Tudors saw to it that their version of history prevailed. The novel's title is taken from an old proverb ("Truth is the daughter of time") which is quoted by Tey as the novel's epigraph . Like all aphorisms this proverb has been directly quoted, paraphrased or enhanced many times over
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#1732845611866506-414: The very scholarly but dull "Tanner's Constitutional History of England". He also reads Thomas More 's History of King Richard III and a historical novel called The Rose of Raby by "Evelyn Payne-Ellis", about the life of Richard's mother Cecily Neville . Both Tanner's history and the novel are non-existent; it has been suggested that the title of the latter is derived from Guy Paget 's 1937 biography of
529-577: Was adopted , and the dark truths that she uncovers. Philippa Palfrey was adopted as a child and grows up being taught that she was the illegitimate daughter of an aristocrat. When she turns eighteen she decides to use her legal right to pursue the truth of her origins, but places herself in danger when her missions come up against the interests of people who'd rather she never find out who she is. The novel received generally positive reviews. Polymath and mystery fan Jacques Barzun reviewed it thusly in his A Catalogue of Crime : "P. D. James chose to write
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