The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey (author) (UK edition)

Inspector Alan Grant of Scotland Yard, recuperating from a broken leg, becomes fascinated with a contemporary portrait of Richard III that bears no resemblance to the Wicked Uncle of history. Could such a sensitive, noble face actually belong to one of the world’s most heinous villains – a venomous hunchback said to have killed his brother’s children to secure his crown? Or might Richard have been the victim, turned into a monster by the usurpers of England’s throne? Grant determines to find out once and for all. With the help of the British Museum and an American scholar, he must deduce what kind of man Richard Plantagenet really was, and who killed the Princes in the Tower… A classic mystery which bridges the centuries, from one of the great writers of Golden Age detective fiction.