Betrayal - Hardcover

Francis, Clare

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1569472904 ISBN 13: 9781569472903

Publisher: Soho Press, 2002

Synopsis

Falsely accused of murdering his mistress, businessman Hugh Wellesley hides the truth about the affair and is supported by his wife and brother, but as evidence against him continues to mount, he seeks to disentangle himself from the case so that the real killer can be found. 10,000 first printing.

About this title

About the Author

Clare Francis is the author of the bestselling novels Night Sky, Red Crystal, and Wolf Winter as well as the nonfiction bestsellers Come Hell or High Water, Come Wind or Weather, and The Commanding Sea. A Dark Devotion is the third Clare Francis novel to be published by Soho, after Deceit and Betrayal. She lives in London.

Reviews

Sometimes it takes a while for a good fish to swim all the way across the pond. Originally published in England in 1995, this psychological suspenser from crowd-pleaser Francis (Night Sky) is just making it to shore here. While caught up in the tensions surrounding a possible buyout of the glass company he inherited from his father, Hugh Wellesley hears news reports of the murder of his mistress, Sylvie. Unwilling to come clean with his sickly and devoted wife, Ginny, Hugh lies to her and the police. When he's arrested anyway, Ginny covers for him so thoroughly that the police believe her guilty and arrest her instead. Hugh also has a doctor brother, David, who tells his share of lies. And David's wife, Mary, deceives, too. As the trial draws nearer, it becomes apparent that the only way to save Ginny is to discover the truth behind Sylvie's death. Francis explores betrayal on many levels here: business partner against partner, brother against brother, husband against wife, lover against lover, even doctor against patient. The delight for the reader in this cynically dishonest world lies in discerning that every behavior, however altruistic on the surface, is suspect. Even Hugh, as first-person narrator, behaves so suspiciously that the reader doubts him. The only flaw in this quietly taut white knuckler is the ending, which is a trifle sweet given what has gone before.

Clare Francis is quite similar, without being derivative, to another British suspense master, Dick Francis. Both like to portray an essentially good protagonist suddenly assaulted by circumstance. Both give the reader technical background concerning areas cut off from common knowledge. And both know how to plunge their heroes into saunalike suspense, turning up the heat to almost unbearable levels. Hugh Wellesley, the beleaguered hero of Francis' second crime novel, following Deceit [BKL My 1 01], is in the midst of both trying to salvage his troubled marriage and fighting a buyout of the family glass business when he learns that an old girlfriend with whom he had another fling the past summer has been pulled from the river, bound and dead. As police question both him and his wife as prime suspects, hero Wellesley becomes more and more bewildered and frantic. The reader is kept off-balance, too, as disturbing shadows creep around the narrative. Top-drawer suspense and a fascinating look at the glass and china business. Connie Fletcher
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

In this increasingly suspenseful pyschological mystery, Hugh Wellesley's alleged involvement with a murdered woman threatens to destroy his orchestration of a company buyout. The manipulations of a back-stabbing partner and an asthmatic, spendthrift wife plus Hugh's own deceitfulness add glue to the sticky position in which he finds himself. Each confession he makes to police, to his wife, to his sympathetic sister-in-law reveals more of the truth, but not until police arrest his wife does he feel enough pressure to act. Psychological turmoil, chilling intrigue, and nicely dressed-up plotting combine to create a British best seller. For fans of Ruth Rendell, Minette Walters, and other masters of British suspense.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Soho Press
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1569472904
• ISBN 13: 9781569472903
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 373