Product Description

A brilliant suspense novel of the London courts from the "splendidly accomplished" Frances Fyfield (Chicago Tribune)

In Shadow Play, Frances Fyfield hones her powers of writerly suspense to give us a sophisticated, psychologically gripping tale about crimes of the most twisted passions.

The odd, vaguely menacing little man called Mr. Logo is a familiar figure in the old court building in London. Although frequently brought before the magistrate for indecent assault, he is invariably acquitted due to lack of evidence. He is especially familiar to Helen West, the take-no- prisoners Crown Prosecutor who has just failed for the fifth time to prosecute him. Now he is off-limits to her until his next appearance in court. Yet, when she befriends Rose, the young, compulsively secretive and promiscuous clerk in the office, Helen West unwittingly sets in motion events that will dangerously complicate her connection to Mr. Logo and push his rage and dark passion to lethal extremes.

"There are crime writers whom we think of primarily as novelists. . . . There is no one higher on this list than Frances Fyfield." --P. D. James

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #811833 in Books
• Published on: 1999-12-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Mr. Logo, a whisky-guzzling, Bible-toting road sweeper, desperately combs London for his daughter Enid, missing for four years. To prosecuting attorney Helen West, Logo is a public menace who lures young girls into graveyards, where, she suspects--but can't prove--he fondles them. His neighbors, however, consider Logo a harmless eccentric, and readers of this suspenseful, sophisticated tale of sexual abuse and murder only gradually become aware that he is a woman-hating maniac. West's office buddy, 19-year-old Rose Darvey, who has bedded the whole police force, is actually Logo's missing daughter, using an assumed name; she ran away with her mother to escape his sexual abuse after stabbing him with a kitchen knife in self-defense. Now her mother is missing, possibly a victim of Logo. Sexual banter and police camaraderie give way to a deep exploration of the rage, shame and emotional scars inflicted by child abuse, as Edgar Award winner Fyfield ( A Question of Guilt ) entertains with fully realized characters, withering observations on human behavior and a feminist heroine who swings between a wariness of commitment and a yen to marry her lover, an argumentative cop.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"Brilliant, dark, scary and authentic. This is a book to be read in daylight." -The Globe and Mail

"Fyfield's intelligence is as ferociously penetrating as ever." -Kirkus Reviews

"If you haven't discovered [Fyfield], do so--. This psychological twister has a terrific villain who is so sympathetic you can't hate him - until the next page." -The Providence Journal

"A terrifying chiller in the tradition of Highsmith and Rendell. Sexual energy - female sexual energy - is one of the spine-chilling ingredients. The women have real sexual and emotional needs which are portrayed with devastating realism." -The Evening Standard


-- Review

Review
"Brilliant, dark, scary and authentic. This is a book to be read in daylight." -The Globe and Mail

"Fyfield's intelligence is as ferociously penetrating as ever." -Kirkus Reviews

"If you haven't discovered [Fyfield], do so--. This psychological twister has a terrific villain who is so sympathetic you can't hate him - until the next page." -The Providence Journal

"A terrifying chiller in the tradition of Highsmith and Rendell. Sexual energy - female sexual energy - is one of the spine-chilling ingredients. The women have real sexual and emotional needs which are portrayed with devastating realism." -The Evening Standard