English writer Frances Fyfield is a previous winner of the CWA/Duncan Laurie Award (Blood From A Stone), and has been compared to Patricia Highsmith. Although the cover quotes use words like chilling and unnerving, I found her to be rather relaxed and pastoral.
Sarah Fortune happens upon a friend on a dark London street in the wee hours of the morning. She invites Jessica back to her flat and listens to another of her tales of obsessive love. Jess attracts drama, and this time it's a man who runs a restaurant and buys from London's Smithfield meat market. When Sarah remarks she dreams of a cottage getaway, Jess sets up a rental in her old hometown. Pennyvale is but a few shops and scattered houses along the coast, the end of nowhere, where Sarah wanders the shore aimlessly. She meets the local butcher, the gay vicar, and Jessica's mother who runs the town like she owns it. Which she mostly does.
Sarah thinks by being there she can resurrect and resolve the mysterious drama that caused Jess to flee many years ago - was it her Dad disappearing at sea, her sleeping with too many locals, or Jessica's unsettling outbursts? Resolution is found, though only after a dead dog and a young woman are (separately) found in the local butcher's freezer.
Sarah was a flighty figure to me, indulging in silent solace on the country trails one minute and feisty the next. She eagerly offers to paint the church for the vicar, but after buying the paint, stops. She is so enamoured with the butcher shop she offers to wash the cutting block (Can I do this every day?) then that is forgotten as well. When she finds the body in the chiller, her reaction is a sedated "poor cow... poor cow... And then, Shut the door will you? We don't want her getting warm". Quite relaxed for finding a body hung up and bled dry.
The whole tone was sedate, quite unlike the promise of a bloody tale on the cover. This was a light mystery of a seaside town with a few old skeletons seeing the light of day.
I see now that this is the sixth Sarah Fortune mystery by Fyfield. The character was a prestigious lawyer, part time mistress, part time psychologist, and part time detective. In this one she was free to vacation in a cottage. Near the end of the book, when someone called her a hooker, I thought they were joking. Maybe not. I have no idea.
Take note if you don't care for the art of butchery. Meat is a main theme in this novel, from the workings of the Smithfield meet market to the everyday practice at the local butcher. Some of the characters worked at the local abattoir, and even the church is dedicated to St. Bartholomew whose emblem is a butcher's knife.
An interesting novel with an off camera murder, but no tension or thrills.
Points for writing that kept my attention.
2009 / Tradeback / 242 pages
Comments