Frances Fyfield

BLOOD FROM STONE was recently announced as the winner of the 2008 Duncan Lawrie Dagger, presented by the Crime Writers' Association in the UK.  Reading a prize-winning novel for review always presents a slightly different set of questions to answer - the obvious one being why did it win?  Frances Fyfield is the author of around 17 previous novels incidentally.

 

BLOOD FROM STONE is essentially the story of Marianne Shearer; successful criminal barrister and defence counsel; wealthy and supposedly extremely self-assured - Marianne is not a conventionally attractive woman, but she dresses extremely, and formally well.  Why did she jump from a sixth-floor window?  Especially as she had just won a very high profile case - her client might have been guilty, he may have been an extremely nasty piece of work - but her defence slowly wore down the prosecution case - probably killed a chief witness.  But vigorous defence was the normal part of her daily life.  After her death her own lawyer and probably one of the few people able to call himself a friend - Thomas Noble - finds that there is a lot to Marianne's private life that's looking increasingly abnormal.  When he hires humble lawyer, and Junior to Marianne, Peter Friel to help track down all her missing possessions it is Peter that finally manages to pinpoint what was really odd about her death - her clothes.

 

The entire of this book swirls around Marianne's life and the final case she defended before throwing herself to her death.  There are some co-incidences drawn upon to bring a number of the elements of the story together - the connections between Peter and Thomas, the connections between them both and Marianne.  The connection between her clothes and the last case that she defended.  The connections between the accused in that case and Marianne.  It's all those connections and all those coincidences that give the reader pause for concern as they are revealed - pretty rapidly in the early stages of the book.  But stay with it.  The point of the connections is that life is often more about co-incidences and weird occurrences that logically - make no sense - but they happen and the impact of them is often long-term and incredibly far reaching.

 

Part of what really works in BLOOD FROM STONE is that sense that one more thing can't possibly happen - but it does.  One more co-incidence couldn't possibly be explained - but it can.  One more element to this story can't possibly be connected - but it is.  Ultimately what really works is that Fyfield writes a cast of characters that are accessible, and believable.  In a deft touch even the dead are accessible, if not ever so slightly just on the fringe of reach - you learn only so much about the dead - enough to make you understand some of what they did / went through - but not so much that it's unrealistic or even - disconcerting.   It's definitely an unusual setting, and it's an unusual story insomuch as the deaths of most concern are not murders, but it is a really engaging and fascinating book.  Definitely would have won a prize if I gave one.

 

 

Rachel Doe needs to sort out her life. She's had such a sheltered, cautious existence; an accountant, only daughter of very timid parents, the only really daring thing she has done in her life was to dob in her lover - a liar and thief. All she got for her efforts was suspicion and a greater sense of loneliness and isolation than she had ever had before.

 

When Rachel meets Ivy she's totally captivated and they soon become involved in a very intense, platonic friendship which surprises everyone. Ivy is so different from Rachel, she was a real wild child - charismatic; a life-drawing model; ex-junkie; cleaner and ex-wife of Carl - now a Judge. The relationship is even more intense for Rachel as she finds, in Ivy's mother Grace, the sort of mother figure that her own never was, encompassing, loving, fun and ever so slightly happy crazy, Rachel is ultimately as attracted to Ivy's family as she is to Ivy.

 

Ivy's divorce from Carl came after the drowning of their daughter in a lake not far from Ivy's family farm. Since the divorce she has had no contact with her son. Rachel finds herself trying to bring about a reconciliation, at least between Ivy's parents and their grandson. Whilst she is repulsed by Carl and the stories of his violence and cruelty towards Ivy, she also finds herself strangely attracted to him. Can this charming, considerate man really be the monster that tore Ivy's son from her arms and caused the death of his own daughter?

 

As the friendship between Rachel and Ivy escalates and Rachel's attempts to firstly contact the Judge and then get him to agree to meet with Ivy's parents, there is a slow building of tension. Events occur around them that appear to have no relationship to what is happening between the main players in the story, but at the same time, the reader is made more and more aware that there's something very odd going on. The story unfolds rapidly and whilst you can guess that there's something really sinister going on, the question is what exactly is that "something".

 

There's a great sense of escalating tension and conflict in this book. Rachel is an interesting character as she moves from infatuation with Ivy, through doubt, to justification and denial, and finally strength and inner steel. Ivy is very edgy, intense and obviously complex. The surrounding characters are flawed, human and retain your interest. There is a bit of subtext around the story - the difficulties of farming life, Carl and his life with a teenage son, a sympathetic and overworked policeman and his own family.

 

Having read quite a few Frances Fyfield books in the past, THE ART OF DROWNING is definitely a major standout, it was compelling, retained interest and was nicely paced with a very realistic and satisfactory ending.