Seeking Sanctuary - Softcover

Frances Fyfield

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0751533394 ISBN 13: 9780751533392

Publisher: Little Brown P/B, 2004

Synopsis

When Theo Calvert was driven out of the family home by his wife's cloying piety he had determined that his daughters would follow him, but in the face of the law, the girls' health and his wife's intransigence, he failed. But, if he lost the battle for their souls in life, he would make amends in death, craftily shaping his will to benefit them so long as they did not follow their mother's example. His daughters felt they had lost either way, especially Anna. She had promiscuously turned her back on her mother's teachings, but watched in horror as her sister Therese followed those same lessons and naively accepted the faith which Anna was certain had ruined their lives. In her rebellion against such blind belief she at first doesn't notice the worm in their midst when the convent where Therese has settled employs a new gardener. And when she does wake up to the danger she realises she may have left it too late to save their legacy and their lives.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

Theodore Calvert walked out on his wife and their children, Anna and Therese, when they needed him most. Now, from beyond the grave, his carefully crafted will is set to unravel his daughters? lives all over again. . .

It was Isabel Calvert?s pious Christianity that drove Theodore away. When he left, it was the Church that replaced him in his daughters? upbringing. By the time Isabel died, it was the Blessed Sacrament Convent that the daughters were calling home. And while Anna rebels and returns to the real world, Therese is still consumed by the life of duty and worship.

In the midst of all this arrives the mysterious Francis: a young, good-looking, golden-haired gardener. Although the nuns are besotted by his charm and handiwork, Anna is less convinced by his motives: the killing of a magpie is an eerie, ominous sign of what is to follow. As Anna tries to unpick Francis?s sinister plans, she realizes that the answer lies in finding out the truth about her own family?s past. The question is, can she do it before it is too late?

Seeking Sanctuary is another brilliant tale of enveloping, encapsulating suspense.

It was wrong to be so fearless of the dark, but it was a fear she had never learned and the lack of it made her indifferent to being followed at night. Girls being followed was a fact of life: she could run faster than any thief and besides, had nothing to steal from her shoulder pack. . . . The footsteps trailed away as she neared her own flat. Probably the one who followed tonight was one of the homeless who parked themselves at the back door of the convent, encouraged by the rumour of Christian charity. They had banged on the door last winter, persisting until the ivy had grown down to shield the exit and announce its permanent disuse. . . . She drew level to the back door on the way to her own, and she saw that the ivy had been clipped, neatly trimmed to frame the wood. Once inside, she went upstairs and onto the roof to gaze down into the garden where there was nothing to see. Looking up she could see the stars; imagine the souls in the firmament. Sister John and her darling mother. Her father would surely be in hell.
from Seeking Sanctuary


From the Trade Paperback edition.

From the Back Cover

Praise for The Nature of the Beast:
“One of Fyfield’s finest works.... Fyfield plays with our notions of abuse, love and fear, twisting every button in the psyche.... Everything is worked out with the precision of a Swiss watch, right to the tight and appropriate ending with its unexpected twist.” -- The Globe and Mail

About this edition

• Publisher: Little Brown P/B
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0751533394
• ISBN 13: 9780751533392
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320