Brat Farrar

The ending of the book as a major turn in the plot, so you need to hang in there until then. There was some times during the story that it got slow, but the ending was very rewarding.

Loved the characters, especially Brat; the English manners & setting; the unexpected crime story beneath the crime that frames the entire novel. Well-written too!

Read and loved everything Tey wrote in my teens. Found her again in my 70s. What luck it is to have such pleasure twice in a lifetime.

"Brat Farrar" is among the best of Josephine Tey's classic mysteries, which means that it's one of the best such stories of all time. I like it even more than "The Daughter of Time," often considered the finest British mystery novel of the 20th century. No two Tey novels are alike, even when her serial detective, Inspector Adam Grant, is looking into things. The mystery of "Brat Farrar" is purely psychological, anticipating the later psychological thrillers of Ruth Rendell. Ostensibly about an attractive imposter who acquires a country estate by posing as a long-lost older brother, "Brat Farrar" is a spin on the Cain and Abel story, examining the roles that inheritance, grief, sibling rivalry and innate character play in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse. Tey was also a fine playwright, a master of telling dialogue, incapable of writing a scene without sparkle. Her portrait of the English gentry and its dependents is as sharp as anything by George Eliot - a pointillistic "Middlemarch." Moreover, not even Dick Francis was better at depicting the world of horses. Fifteen years ago, a film of "Brat Farrar" with Ben Affleck was announced but never made. It remains a terrific vehicle for screen adaptation, so rich are its characters, its setting, its themes and its twisty, chilling action.

A young man, Brat Farrar, is inveigled into impersonating someone believed to be long dead, supposedly drowned. This plot is hatched by someone who knows the family and spots Brat’s uncanny resemblance to Simon Ashby, the twin brother of the supposed deceased, Patrick Ashby. The plotter then coaches Brat in all the information he needs on the Ashby family and their estate in order for him to successfully impersonate a resurrected Patrick. Needless to say, a sizable inheritance is at stake, one from which Brat will benefit, as will the plotter due to his perfidy. Yet, Brat quickly discerns that all may not be as it seems. Let the games begin! This is a beautifully written book with fully fleshed, engaging characters and an intriguing plot. The discerning reader may deduce early on what may have really happened to the deceased, but will be regaled by the ensuing cat and mouse game that develops. It is one that will have high stakes, with only one winner possible. I was completely taken with the unfolding events and the characters. I simply could not stop turning the page of this book in which a classic battle between good and evil is waged. It completely held me in its thrall!