Frances Fyfield: Blood from Stone (USA 2013)

From the Publisher:
A twisting tale of suspense -- perfect for fans of Linda Fairstein.
When the body of a successful criminal lawyer is found outside a chic London hotel, it looks like a suicide. For those who knew her, the woman's death is a shock -- Marianne Shearer was at the pinnacle of her career, wealthy and stylish -- but for the police, the case is open-and-shut.

There's something strange about the circumstances, though, something that prompts her colleague Peter Friel to dig deeper. Little by little, he discovers that things are not as they seem. In her final days, Marianne appears to have left a series of small, almost imperceptible clues -- clues that point to a far more sinister truth.

Frances Fyfield: Blood from Stone. Witness Impulse / HarperCollins, ISBN: 9780062301864 (November, 2013), eBook, 503 KB (ca. 320 p.), $2.99.

Frances Fyfield: Blood from Stone (UK 2009)

From the Publisher:
When the body of a successful criminal barrister is found outside a chic Kensington hotel, it looks at first like a suicide. For colleagues and friends, her death comes as a huge shock - Marianne Shearer was at the pinnacle of her career, wealthy and stylish - but for the police the case is open-and-shut.

There's something strange about the circumstances, though, something that prompts fellow lawyers Thomas Nobel and Peter Friel to dig deeper. Little by little, they discover that all is not as it seems. Oddly enough, Marianne herself appears to have left a series of small, almost imperceptible clues - clues that point to a far more sinister truth. Retracing Marianne's steps, Nobel and Friel uncover a carefully concealed darker side of her perfect life that leads them back to her last, gruesome case - when she knowingly sacrificed an innocent witness to let a criminal walk free.

Frances Fyfield: Blood from Stone. Sphere, ISBN: 9780751539271 (July, 2009), 327 p., £8.99.

Frances Fyfield: Blood from Stone (UK 2008)

From the Publisher:
Nobody really liked Marianne Shearer - but nobody murdered her either.
She did that all by herself, booking into a Kensington hotel for the sole purpose of checking out through a sixth-floor window. But why would a stylish and highly sucessful criminal barrister do such a thing? She was still riding the crest of the wave of her Jast, sensational case. And she had just moved into a million-pound flat. Life was sweet.

In the shocking wake of her death it soon becomes clear that little in Marianne's life was normal. Nor were the elliptical instructions she left for fellow lawyer, Thomas Noble; nor is the fact that all her possessions are missing. But it's another, humbler lawyer, Peter Friel, who spots the most glaring anomaly. Why would a woman whose daily uniform was a black trouser-suit dress for her own death in an exquisitely expensive, kaleidoscopic silk skirt? Marianne herself would have seized on that detail. She would have thought it pointed to a killer. It does.

Marianne, murderess herself, left clues to a life that consisted - like the clothes - of layers. Some were beautiful; others startling; most were concealed; but the final layer, the one that Marianne had tried to hide from herself for so long, provides the reason for her death. It's sewn into the fabric of her last, gruesome case, where her brutal demolition of the star witness led to the acquittal of her client. He walked free. No one else did.

Frances Fyfield: Blood from Stone. Sphere, ISBN: 9781847440747 (March, 2008), 327 p., £19.99.