Shadow Play (Helen West Series #4)

by Frances Fyfield

Overview

This sophisticated, psychologically gripping tale about crimes of the most twisted passion is perfect for fans of Linda Fairstein and Patricia Highsmith.

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 judge for indecent assault, he is invariably acquitted due to lack of evidence. He is especially familiar to Helen West, the take-no-prisoners lawyer who has just failed for the fifth time to convict 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 her office, Helen unwittingly sets in motion events that will dangerously complicate her connection to Mr. Logo and push his rage and dark passion to lethal extremes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062301437
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	03/18/2014
Series:	Helen West Series , #4
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	100
Sales rank:	281,431
File size:	453 KB

About the Author

Frances Fyfield has spent much of her professional life practicing as a criminal lawyer, work that has informed her highly acclaimed novels. She has been the recipient of both the Gold and Silver Crime Writers' Association Daggers. She is also a regular broadcaster on Radio 4, most recently as the presenter of the series Tales from the Stave. She lives in London and in Deal, overlooking the sea, which is her passion.

Editorial Reviews

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. (May)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

"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

From the Publisher