Frances Fyfield: A Clear Conscience (USA 2025)

From the Publisher:
A tense, twisting thriller perfect for fans of Linda Fairstein.
Crown Prosecutor Helen West spends her days fighting for justice in domestic violence cases, so it's no wonder she can't find the energy to clean her own apartment.

Helen is thrilled to have found the lovely and sad-eyed Cath, whom she pays to clean for her. But when she notices bruises on Cath's arm, Helen can't stop thinking about what the girl must go home to at night. And when Cath's brother is brutally murdered, Helen is pulled down a dark and disturbing path where violence is the only guarantee.

Frances Fyfield: A Clear Conscience. A Helen West Mystery. Witness Impulse / HarperCollins, ISBN: 9780062301482 (March, 2025), eBook, 959 KB, (ca. 288 p.), $1.99.

Frances Fyfield: A Clear Conscience (USA 2001)

From the Publisher:
Helen West, Crown prosecutor in domestic violence court, is working up a good case of burnout: justice-by-the-book doesn't seem to be working for the women she represents. Plus, Helen's love affair with Police Superintendent Geoffrey Bailey is losing its fire. Things suddenly heat up when Helen learns that humble Cath, her cleaning woman, is being beaten by her husband. Cath has no family -- her beautiful brother, Damien, has recently been brutally murdered-and needs all the help she can get. But as the truth of Cath's young life, marriage, and her brother's murder begin to take shape, help and justice seem hard to come by... and may prove forever beyond reach.

Frances Fyfield: A Clear Conscience. Penguin Books, ISBN: 0140282513 (August, 2001), 284 p., $6.99.

Frances Fyfield: A Clear Conscience (USA 1996)

From the Publisher:
Helen West, Crown prosecutor in domestic violence court, is working up a good case of burnout: justice-by-the-book doesn't seem to be working for the women she represents. Plus, Helen's love affair with Police Superintendent Geoffrey Bailey is losing its fire. Things suddenly heat up when Helen learns that humble Cath, her cleaning woman, is being beaten by her husband. Cath has no family -- her beautiful brother, Damien, has recently been brutally murdered-and needs all the help she can get. But as the truth of Cath's young life, marriage, and her brother's murder begin to take shape, help and justice seem hard to come by... and may prove forever beyond reach.

Frances Fyfield: A Clear Conscience. Ballantine Books, ISBN: 034538508X (August, 1996), 262 p., $5.99 (?).

Frances Fyfield: A Clear Conscience (UK 1995)

From the Publisher:
If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Crown Prosecutor Helen West applies this maxim with equal verve to the state of disrepair of her garden flat and to her relationship with senior policeman Geoffrey Bailey, although both are in need of a little tender loving care. Bailey, in particular, is caught up in a seemingly open-and-shut murder enquiry, but something about the case is making him uneasy.

Returning home from another unsuccessful court hearing, another domestic violence case which leaves her frustrated and angry, Helen decides that her life needs brightening up. Where better to start than her home, and who better to help than Cath, her newly acquired cleaning lady?

Cath is a treasure, recommended by Helen's friends, the Eliots, and her life could do with brightening too. Not only is she mourning the death of her much-loved brother, she is also ensconced in a less-than-perfect marriage. Helen is only too happy to turn a blind eye to Cath's unhappiness, until, as the paths of her private and professional lives unwittingly collide, she becomes a witness to the destructive forces of love and guilt, and finds herself applying her own version of justice.

Frances Fyfield: A Clear Conscience. Corgi Books, ISBN: 0552142956 (August,1995), 283 p., £4.99.

Frances Fyfield: A Clear Conscience (USA 1995)

From the Publisher:
Win novels such as A Question of Guilt (which was nominated for an Edgar Award), Shadow Play, and Perfectly Pure and Good ("elegant and unnerv- ing" -- New York Times Book Review), Frances Fyfield has established herself as one of the best and most original crime novelists at work today. The menace and suspense in her stories arise, not from the discovery ofthe who behind the crime, but in the revelation of the darker intricacies of the how and why. In A Clear Conscience (which has been nominated for the Silver Dagger Award), she gives us her most chilling and emotionally compelling novel yet.

Fyfield takes us back into the life and world of Helen West, Prosecutor for the Crown. Overwhelmed by her own crisis of faith, Helen has put her beliefs -- in the law, in her job, in herself -- under the razor-sharp attorney's scrutiny she normally saves for the witness stand. What she finds is that winning her cases no longer triggers the satisfaction and excitement it once did. Frustrated with justice-by-the-rules, haunted by the "knowledge of guilt and misery" it gives her, and surrounded by people in both her professional and personal lives who believe that the rules can work only by being stretched, Helen is beginning to think they may be right.

Now - as if someone had designed a test case for her - Helen becomes involved in the private and legal life of a battered woman whose shockingly dire circumstances might, to some minds, be deemed excuse enough for even the most gruesome crime. As the "truth" about the woman's actions is revealed - piece by piece, version by version - Helen must confront the arrogance and cynicism that have crept up around her sense of compassion and justice, and that may have skewed her judgment, shrouding her conscience in order to keep it clear...

Frances Fyfield: A Clear Conscience. Pantheon Books, ISBN: 0679426663 (March,1995), 223 p., $20.00.

Frances Fyfield: A Clear Conscience (UK 1994)

From the Publisher:
If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Crown Prosecutor Helen West runs her life by this maxim. She applies it with equal verve to the state of disrepair of her garden flat and to her ongoing relationship with senior policeman Geoffrey Bailey, although both are in need of a little tender loving care. Bailey, in particular, is caught up in a seemingly open-and-shut murder enquiry, but something about the case is making him uneasy.

Returning home from another unsuccessful court hearing, another domestic violence case which leaves her frustrated and angry, Helen decides that her life needs brightening up. Where better to start than her home, and who better to help than Cath, her newly acquired cleaning lady?

Cath is a treasure, recommended by Helen's friends, the Eliots, and her life could do with brightening too. Not only is she mourning the death of her much-loved brother, she is also ensconced in a less-than-perfect marriage. Helen is only too happy to turn a blind eye to Cath's unhappiness, until, as the paths of her private and professional lives unwittingly collide, she becomes a witness to the destructive forces of love and guilt, and finds herself applying her own version of justice.

Once again Frances Fyfield brings together Helen West and Geoffrey Bailey in as poignant, compelling and unpredictable a story as we have come to expect from the writer described by A.N. Wilson as 'much the best crime writer alive in Britain'.

Frances Fyfield: A Clear Conscience. Bantam Books, ISBN: 059303743X (November, 1994), 222 p., £14.99.