Frances Fyfield: Deep Sleep (USA 2025)

From the Publisher:
This gripping psychological maze is perfect for fans of Ruth Rendell and P. D. James.
Pip Carlton is a devoted husband and a highly respected pharmacist, cherished by his loyal customers. When his wife dies in her sleep, with no apparent cause, he is distraught. Comforted by his caring assistant, Pip ignores the rumors about Margaret's death, relieved that the police seem to have moved on.

But prosecutor Helen West refuses to believe that Margaret simply slipped into her final slumber. As she probes deeper into the affairs of the neighborhood, she uncovers a viper's nest of twisted passion, jealous rage, and lethal addictions.

Then a sudden act of violence erupts, shaking the community, and one lone man, armed with strange love potions, prepares to murder again...

Frances Fyfield: Deep Sleep. A Helen West Mystery. Witness Impulse / HarperCollins, ISBN: 9780062303967 (March, 2025), eBook, 678 KB (ca. 256 p.), $9.99.

Frances Fyfield: Deep Sleep (UK 2012)

From the Publisher:
Pip Carlton is a devoted husband and a highly respected pharmacist, cherished by his loyal customers in Herringbone Parade. When his wife dies in her sleep, without cause and without pain, he is distraught. Comforted by his caring assistant, Pip struggles to take up the threads of his life, ignoring the rumours about Margaret's death, relieved that the police are content to shrug off the mystery.

But Helen West, Solicitor and Crown prosecutor, fresh from hospital herself, refuses to believe that Margaret simply slipped into her final slumber. Others are more difficult to convince, including Helen's awkward and pragmatic partner, Detective Superintendent Geoffrey Bailey, and the only people who share her suspicions are a confused and lonely boy and the drug addict who dies so mysteriously in Geoffrey's arms.

Memories in the Parade are inflamed by the discovery of an unexploded bomb and in the midst of the evacuation of the streets, one lone man, armed with strange love potions prepares to murder again.

Frances Fyfield: Deep Sleep. Sphere, ISBN: 9781405521154 (October, 2012), eBook, 0.7 MB (ca. 256 p.), £5.99.

Frances Fyfield: Deep Sleep (USA 1993)

From the Publisher:
Winner of the Silver Dagger award from the British Crime Writer's Association, DEEP SLEEP is Frances Fyfield's third crime novel featuring Crown Prosecutor Helen West and her confidant, Chief Superintendent Geoffrey Bailey.

When Margaret Carlton, wife of the "Caring Chemist" Pip, dies in her sleep, Helen ignores Bailey's caution to stay out of police investigations. Margaret's apparent good health and relative youth, together with an incomplete police report, arouse Helen's suspicions and her professional ire. Probing into the affairs of a London neighborhood known as Herringbone Parade, Helen uncovers a viper's nest of twisted passion, jealous rage, and lethal addictions. As a sudden crisis rooted in the violent past erupts, a murderer stalks his unwitting prey... and DEEP SLEEP propels us toward its dramatic and startling denouement.

Frances Fyfield: Deep Sleep. Pocket Books, ISBN: 0671735470 (March, 1993), 227 p., $4.99.

Frances Fyfield: Deep Sleep (UK 1992)

From the Publisher:
When a pharmacists wife dies, quietly, in her sleep, the local community rallies round in support. For his devoted customers, neighbours and voluptuous assistant, no effort is too great to help him in his time of need, and he is only too glad to accept.

Crown Prosecutor, Helen West, has her doubts about the death and when the autopsy turns up some odd results she knows that all is not as it seems. The only problem is that she can't even persuade her own partner, Detective Superintendent Geoffrey Bailey, that anything is amiss. Then the chance discovery of a wartime bomb gives a less than stable man the opportunity to kill - and Helen's suspicions are set to explode into reality.

Frances Fyfield: Deep Sleep. A West & Bailey Mystery. Mandarin, ISBN: 0749308915 (October, 1992), 275 p., £4.99.

Frances Fyfield: Deep Sleep (USA 1992)

From the Publisher:
Award-winning writer Frances Fyfield is the author of four lavishly praised novels that explore, with brilliant insight and compelling emotional power, the darkest heart of evil and the intricate twistings of the criminal psyche.

"Frances Fyfield now joins that charmed circle of murderous British females, from Sayers and Christie to Ruth Rendell and P.D. James..." said .Michael Malone of A Question of Guilt; "...first-rate... a firm recommendation, particularly for the James-Rendell-Grimes set," said The Philadciphia Inquirer of Not That Kind of Place. Now, in her third crime novel featuring Crown Prosecutor Helen West and Chief Superintendent Geoffrey Bailey, she returns to the scene that first brought the couple together, and to which they have repaired for its dubious but dependable urban comforts... London.

A brief, unsettling sojourn in the country has convinced Geoffrey Bailey and Helen West that London's tarnished delights are unmatched.

Happy to be back in the city's chaos, they are careful to respect one another's privacy while sharing a passionate intimacy. Immersed in their separate routines of police work and criminal law, the pair uncharacteristically parry and thrust over the sudden death of Margaret Carlton, wife of the "Caring Chemist" Pip, who passed away in her sleep. Margaret's apparent good health and relative youth, together with an incomplete police report, arouse Helen's suspicions and her professional ire. Ignoring Bailey's caution to stay out of police investigations, she begins to probe into the affairs of the residents of the East End neighborhood known as Herringbone Parade...

Unctuous and agile, Pip Carlton is a chemist whose knowledge of deadly potions is extensive; whose precise record-keeping passes police muster; whose childish vulnerabilities are swathed in fantasy; and whose passion for his buxom assistant is obsessive and unspoken... Kimberley Perry is determined to survive her disastrous marriage, care for her son Tom, and become a fully certified chemist under the meticulous guidance of Pip... Daniel Maley, a reformed junkie, gets his methadone from Pip, and witnesses a scene that will have mortal repercussions... while Detective Constable Duncan Perry, gone to seed and drink, prowls at the edges of his ex-wife's life, driven by a jealous rage...

Helen delves deeper into the enigma of Margaret Carlton's death with the inspired aid of Dr. Sean Hazel, an anaesthetist and endearingly humane philosopher who provides a crucial piece of information. As a sudden crisis rooted in the violent past galvanizes the residents of Herringbone Parade, a murderer, concealed by the confusion, stalks his prey... and DEEP SLEEP propels us towards its dramatic and startling denouement.

FRANCES FYFIELD is the author of three widely praised crime novels: A Question of Guilt and Not That Kind of Place, featuring Helen West and Geoffrey Bailey, and Shadows on the Mirror; and an acclaimed novel of psychological suspense, The Playroom, published under her real name, Frances Hegarty. Ms. Fyfield is a practicing solicitor in London specializing in criminal law. She is an Edgar Award nominee, and has won the Rumpole Award from the Crimewriter's Association in England.

Frances Fyfield: Deep Sleep. A Novel. Pocket Books, ISBN: 0671735462 (March, 1992), 227 p., $18.00.

Frances Fyfield: Deep Sleep (UK 1991)

From the Publisher:
Pip Carlton is a kind soul. A good son and a devoted husband, he is also a highly respected pharmacist, cherished by his loyal customers in Herringbone Parade. When his wife dies in her sleep, without cause and without pain, he is distraught. Comforted by his caring assistant, Pip struggles to take up the threads of his life, ignoring the rumours about Margaret's death, relieved that the police are content to shrug off the mystery.

But Helen West, Solicitor and Crown Prosecutor, fresh from hospital herself, refuses to believe that Margaret simply slipped into her final slumber. Others are more difficult to convince, including Helen's awkward and pragmatic partner, Detective Superintendent Geoffrey Bailey, and the only people who share her suspicions are a confused and lonely boy and the drug addict who dies so mysteriously in Geoffrey's arms.

There is quiet breathing in the Parade: long memories are inflamed by the dramatic discovery of an unexploded bomb hidden beneath the foundations for almost half a century. And there is deep sleep, until the streets are emptied into the darkness of the resulting evacuation. Then one lone man, armed with his strange love potions, strives for his heart's desire and prepares to murder again.

From the back streets of East London and the ponderous progress of the law, Frances Fyfiek has created a masterful and suspenseful novel which her characters, passionate and utterly believable, move in their ignorance towards a terrifying conclusion..

Frances Fyfield: Deep Sleep. Heinemann, ISBN: 0434274267 (September, 1991), 197 p., £13.99.