Fish, Blood and Bone - Softcover

Forbes, Leslie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0752837362 ISBN 13: 9780752837369

Publisher: Orion, 2001

Synopsis

When Claire Fleetwood, a young American forensic photographer, inherits a large house and garden in London's East End from relatives she never knew she had, she imagines it will be a slice of the English dream. But after the brutal murder of her best friend Sally Rivers, Claire learns that her inheritance involves more than she wanted or bargained for. Claire joins a scientific expedition led by her cousin Jack Ironstone, one of the men she suspects of being responsible for Sally's murder. Her journey leads from Jack the Ripper's Whitechapel to the Fleetwoods' murky roots in India's opium trade and the wild 'paradise' valleys of Tibet. It parallels a route taken during Britain's great 19th-century triangulation of the Himalayas by Claire's distant relative Magda Ironstone and a mysterious Indian botanist. As Claire reconstructs a triangular love affair she imagines took place, the contemporary story is overtaken to deadly effect by Magda's.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

Three families across two centuries. A shared history of love and murder.And one woman's passion for life and obsession with death. . .
Expatriate Claire Fleetwood is a forensic photographer adept at turning the bones of the dead into silvery, telling shadows. When she inherits an estate situated in London's East End, Claire finally feels rooted. Then one morning a friend is murdered beyond the walls of her garden--a crime that unnerves her, intrigues her, and compels her to unravel not only the mysteries of the victim's past but her own past as well. It's a journey that takes Claire to the India of her forebears, to a hidden paradise between Bhutan and Tibet, and to a secret history that reverberates through time, through blood, through a lineage of forbidden pleasures and harrowing implications.
A sensuous and revealing thriller like no other, Fish, Blood and Bone is an intoxicating reflection on the consequences of the past, of unearthed skeletons and family sins, played out against the most exotic landscapes on earth--and the most unsettling corners of the imagination.

From the Back Cover:

“Beguiling entertainment.”
--The Washington Post

“Gripping from the outset...a dizzying tale of murder and family mystery.”
--Publishers Weekly

“FORBES’ dense, descriptive prose creates a fecund atmosphere perfect for the unraveling of long-kept secrets.”
--Harper’s Magazine

“An intelligent, breathlessly paced thriller...a cracking good read.”
--Time Out New York

About this edition

• Publisher: Orion
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0752837362
• ISBN 13: 9780752837369
• Binding: Paperback