Without Consent - Hardcover

Fyfield, Frances

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0676970524 ISBN 13: 9780676970524

Publisher: Knopf Canada, 1997

Synopsis

Frances Fyfield's writing has been called "brilliant" (The Cleveland Plain Dealer), "elegant and unnerving" (The New York Times Book Review), and "splendidly accomplished" (Chicago Tribune). Now, in this stylish mystery she hones her powers of writerly suspense and keen characterization to a new edge.

No-nonsense attorney Helen West possesses a rare combination of jaded pragmatism and well-guarded vulnerability. Yet, rape is a crime that haunts her--particularly her latest case where all the evidence all points to D. S. Ryan, the fellow police officer and best friend of her lover, Superintendent Geoffrey Bailey. But slowly, as West and Bailey delve into this seemingly open-and-shut crime, there emerges a man whose cold-blooded intuition about women guarantees him a ready welcome--and rape, even murder, without a trace.

About this title

Review:

All of the guilt, pain, and ugliness that surrounds the crime of rape are woven deep into the fabric of Frances Fyfield's splendid novel about London prosecutor Helen West and her lover, high-echelon police officer Geoffrey Bailey. One of Bailey's protégés, a rough, unlovable sergeant named Ryan, has been accused of several rapes. Fyfield is so skilled at creating and maintaining suspense that we're never sure of Ryan's guilt or innocence until the very end, even though we know that another man, a mysterious doctor, is responsible for some of the vicious attacks. While the rape investigations unfold, West and Bailey make plans to be married, which is another event made believably uncertain by Fyfield's uncanny ability to probe human doubts and frailties. Other Fyfield books available in paperback include Perfectly Pure and Good, A Question of Guilt, and Shadows on the Mirror.

From Kirkus Reviews:

Helen West, a lawyer for London's Crown Prosecution Service, deals mostly with cases of rape and the often hapless victims she has to persuade to carry their accusations to court (A Clear Conscience, 1995, etc.). Here, Helen and her longtime lover Police Superintendent Geoffrey Bailey have finally set a marriage date--at the Registry Office--but Bailey has a serious problem of his own: Detective Sergeant Ryan, his prot‚g‚, whom he had nurtured to responsible maturity in the force and who's now a respected family man, has been accused of rape by Shelley Pelmore, a shopgirl with a taste for nightlife. Shelley's case is but one of several plaguing Helen and her trainee assistant, Rose Darvey. Anna Stirland, nurse at a women's clinic, is another, as is Brigid Connor, a woman addicted to taking long baths and avoiding the attentions of her husband. Mention of a handsome, bald-headed man runs like a thread through many of the victims' accounts, but when Shelley Pelmore is found dead in a local park, Ryan--suspended from the force but not in jail--seems the obvious killer, until Bailey, Helen, and one of the true killer's victims take matters into their own hands. Masterful suspense, although tempered by the author's exasperating tendency to explore every character's psyche at tedious length and to approach every crisis from an oblique angle. Downbeat all the way but, still, powerfully engrossing. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Knopf Canada
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0676970524
• ISBN 13: 9780676970524
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1