The franchise affair

TW: Physical assault on a teenage girl, both acted out upon and imagined, slut-shaming

This is a difficult book to rate. The mystery was engaging enough, although nothing too dramatic compared to modern thrillers or even some others in the golden age, although I thought the solution was a little too convenient and employed one too many deus ex machina. The writing was engaging at times, but just overwrought at times with too much unnecessary scenes and description. What really turned me off from the book was how much violence was casually imagined and thought about by the characters and the casual misogyny here. Probably a 2.5 stars for me.

A 15 year old girl goes missing for a month and turns up looking fairly beaten up. She accuses a mother and daughter of having kidnapped her, locked her in their attic, attempting to force her to be their maid, and then beating her when she refuses. Our MC, Robert Blair, is the lawyer employed by the middle-aged daughter of the accused pair, Marion Sharpe, to clear their name. But tabloids pick up the news and before any investigation can get underway, the Sharpes already find themselves found guilty by public opinion, especially when the young girl in the case, Betty Kane, is the picture of innocence and easily wins the heart of the masses from her looks alone.

Perhaps what struck me the most is the casual misogyny everywhere in this book. This was published in 1948 so, yes, some leeway has to be given for the story being a product of its times. I'm a pretty huge fan of classic English literature, and particularly cozy mysteries so I've gotten used to closing one eye to certain non-PC things that might pop up in these stories, but this one got so far under my skin that it made me uncomfortable. The girl in this case already turns up beaten up. I don't expect the main characters to have sympathy for her since they are working for the other side, but characters actively and casually wish that she was beaten up more for whatever she might have done. In some cases, some characters wish physical violence upon this girl simply because they are themselves physically attracted to Marion Sharpe and want to defend her, but know nothing yet of the truth of the matter.

This attitude comes from both the male and female characters in the book. A lot is assumed about the girl's innocence, or lack thereof, and a lot of slut-shaming goes on very early on when literally nothing about the case is known by any of the characters making these assumptions. In fact, the girl in question is immediately assumed to be “oversexed” simply because of the colour of her eyes. This is put forth by the accused lady, Marion Sharpe, and our main character Robert Blair agrees with her and even recalls some instances in his experience where it would bear out Marion's theory. Yes, I do know that this craziness was somewhat prevalent back in the 1940s, but it's still very jarring to read now.

Ch 3: “It affords me intense satisfaction that someone beat her black and blue. At least there is one person in this world who has arrived at a correct estimate of her. I hope I can meet him someday, so that I may shake his hand.”“Him?”“With those eyes it is bound to be a ‘him'.”

Ch 6: “An attractive face, on the whole. What do you make of it?”“What I should like to make of it ... would be a very nasty mess.”

And some other quotes from later on in the book which I shall put under spoilers:
Ch 15: "I could kill that girl; I could kill her. My God, I could torture her twice a day for a year and then begin again on New Year's day. When I think what she had done to us I--"And this is said by Marion Sharpe, the innocent lady whose side we're supposed to be on, the one we're supposed to pity for having been made an object of public antagonism, basically the maligned heroine of the story."I think she is her mother's daughter; and was merely setting out a little early on the road her mother took. As selfish, as self-indulgent, as greedy, as plausible as the blood she came of."This is after they find out that the girl Betty Kane's biological mother was apparently something of a party-goer and probably a serial adulterer. They then assume that that is why she palmed off Betty onto her aunt to raise and why Betty never spent a lot of time with her biological parents. Despite that, they assume that this attitude and character flaw is genetic and therefore Betty must be promiscuous as well.

Overall, this is fine if you're able to switch off from all of the above. It's not an exciting chase or a murder mystery, but might be interesting to look at from the perspective of a case where it's not just about the weight of the court charges but also about how to deal with public opinions, which can sometimes be worse than any court sentence.