Staring at the Light - Softcover

Frances Fyfield

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0552145262 ISBN 13: 9780552145268

Publisher: CORGI, 2000

Synopsis

Doctor, lawyer, Indian chief, rich man, poor man, beggarman, thief? Well, perhaps not, but the array of characters Frances Fyfield collects in Staring at the Light are equally varied: lawyer, dentist, IRA bomber, artist, nun.... A maverick London lawyer, Sarah Fortune finds herself protecting Cannon Smith, a talented artist with a prison record, a wife he loves deeply, and an unfortunate handicap: a twin brother, Johnny, whose need to believe that he is the most important figure in Cannon's life sails effortlessly beyond the threshold of mental health and into psychopathy. Long ago, the brothers were inseparable, but now they've taken different paths--and Johnny doesn't like that at all. He is determined to bring Cannon back to him, and no one is exempt from playing a pawn in his murderous game: not Sarah; not her Aunt Pauline, a nun who is sheltering Cannon's terrified wife; not William Dalrymple, one of Sarah's eccentric retinue of lovers and a dentist whose chair becomes a horrific centerpiece that will make most readers remember Marathon Man shudderingly. Sarah's blithe, brittle independence is her hallmark: "She was perfectly comfortable living alone with her inexplicable devotions.... She seemed to have turned into a bit of a gypsy, encumbered with a small mortgage and very little else, her ambitions lessening with each succeeding year." But whereas Sara Paretsky's very insistence on V.I. Warshawski's wise-cracking solitude, for example, paradoxically signals that those still waters run as deep as Lake Michigan, Fyfield's determination to turn her heroine into a lone London gun merely renders Sarah as a two-dimensional woman with a commitment phobia.

About this title

About the Author:

Frances Fyfield has spent much of her professional life practising as a criminal lawyer, work which has informed her highly acclaimed crime novels. She has been the recipient of both the Gold and Silver Crime Writers' Association Daggers. She is also a regular broadcaster on Radio 4, most recently as the presenter of the series 'Tales from the Stave'. She lives in London and in Deal, overlooking the sea which is her passion.

From AudioFile:

Fyfield, a London criminal lawyer, has added another novel drenched with psychological suspense to her repertoire. Cannon Smith, streetwise and in trouble with the law, is being stalked by his twin brother, Johnny, wealthy and apparently law-abiding. Cannon's lawyer, kind Sarah Fortune, protects her client in court and from his brother. Parker is enthralling as he simultaneously portrays Sarah's growing doubts about Johnny's alleged corruption and malicious jealousy. All of Parker's good and bad characters are equally convincing. He keeps the listener tense until the teeth-gritting denouement. R.N. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

About this edition

• Publisher: CORGI
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0552145262
• ISBN 13: 9780552145268
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 397