Frances Fyfield: Looking Down (USA 2014)

From the Publisher:
Richard Beaumont hoped to see the elusive crow on the Dover cliffs. Instead he sees a young woman falling to her death. No one recognizes her, and no one has reported her missing. Richard returns, shaken, to his wife, but instead of seeking comfort in Lilian's presence, he locks himself away and obsessively paints the scene of the woman's broken body on the rocks.

Unable to forget what he has witnessed, Richard finds solace in Sarah Fortune's seductive company. As they are drawn into a search for the dead girl's identity, they stumble upon a trade that is both breathtakingly lucrative and chillingly cruel.

This arresting mystery is perfect for fans of Ian Rankin and Louise Penny.

Frances Fyfield: Looking Down. A Sarah Fortune Mystery. Witness Impulse / HarperCollins, ISBN: 9780062301543 (June, 2014), 272 p., $11.99, eBook $5.99.

Frances Fyfield: Looking Down (UK 2005)

From the Publisher:
Richard Beaumont hoped to see the rarest species of crow on the white cliffs of Dover. Instead, he saw a young woman jump to her death -- 'an angel leaping from the skies and merging with the landscape'. So that is the scene he painted. He would have painted the crow -- an omen of hope. What he painted was an omen of something else entirely.

But who was the woman? No one recognises her; no one has reported her missing.

At home in London, Richard's neighbour Sarah Fortune, who had once been his lover, is inexorably involved in the mystery that extends back to the coast: to the strange Edwin, keeper of the coastline, and to Medical Examiner John Armstrong, a man who becomes part of Richard's life and -- intimately -- Sarah's.

The dead girl, too, becomes a part of their lives. For on top of their block of flats, in the penthouse eyrie, lies the glue that binds these people together; the clue to the mystery of the missing girl -- and to a trade that is both breathtakingly lucrative and chillingly cruel.

Frances Fyfield: Looking Down. Time Warner Paperbacks, ISBN: 0751533408 (May, 2005), 306 p., £6.99.

Frances Fyfield: Looking Down (UK 2004)

From the Publisher:
Richard Beaumont hoped to see the rarest species of crow on the white cliffs of Dover. Instead, he saw a young woman jump to her death -- 'an angel leaping from the skies and merging with the landscape'. So that is the scene he painted. He would have painted the crow -- an omen of hope. What he painted was an omen of something else entirely.

But who was the woman? No one recognises her; no one has reported her missing.

Back in London, in the grand block of flats where he lives with his young wife Lilian, Richard obsessively and garishly paints the scene of the woman's broken body. Two floors below, lawyer Sarah Fortune is their uneasy neighbour. Uneasy because she and Richard were lovers many years ago; uneasy, too, because her own brother, a cat-burglar who 'liberates' beautiful paintings from their owners, has his eye on Richard and Lilian's flat. Even so she finds herself inexorably involved in a mystery that extends back to the coast: to the strange Edwin, keeper of the coastline, and to Medical Examiner John Armstrong, a man who becomes part of Richard's life and - intimately - Sarah's.

The dead girl, too, becomes a part of their lives. For on top of the block of flats, in the penthouse eyre, lies the glue that binds these people together: the clue to the mystery of them missing girl -- and to a trade that is both breathtakingly lucrative and chillingly cruel.

Acclaimed as much for her detailed landscapes of the human spirit as for her mastery of the psychological thriller, Frances Fyfield demonstrates that she is at the zenith of her powers in Looking Down, a novel that displays her peerless talent for creating compassion, suspense and surprise.

Frances Fyfield: Looking Down. Little, Brown, ISBN: 0316861774 (September, 2004), 243 p., Hardcover £17.99, Trade £9.99.