Frances Fyfield: Undercurrents (USA 2025)

From the Publisher:
Fans of Laura Lippman and A. S. A. Harrison will love this haunting psychological thriller.
For twenty years, Henry Evans has been haunted by the memory of Francesca, the one that got away. When he travels to England to reconnect with his long-lost love, what he finds is a horrific shock: Francesca has been imprisoned for murdering her five-year-old son.

But Henry refuses to believe Francesca is guilty, even if she did confess -- in chilling detail -- to drowning her own child. In his search for the truth, Henry will find that the darkest of evils are hidden deep beneath the surface...

Frances Fyfield: Undercurrents. A Novel. Witness Impulse / HarperCollins, ISBN: 9780062301291 (March, 2025), eBook, 880 KB (ca. 323 p.), $9.99.

Frances Fyfield: Undercurrents (USA 2002)

From the Publisher:
For twenty years, Henry Evans has been haunted by a blurred but shining memory of his lost love, Francesca Chisholm. Now this shy American has come looking for her, in her hometown on the English coast. What he discovers is not what he expects.

Francesca is in prison for murdering her five-year-old son.

The verdict was never in doubt. Francesca confessed, and admitted to pushing her own son off the pier to drown in the dark undercurrents of the sea. Henry, though, can't believe it; it just doesn't tally with the woman he knew. He decides to stay to discover the truth.

In Undercurrents, Francis Fyfield plumbs the workings of the human soul in a masterful mix of brooding suspense, delicious characterization, precise plotting, and... love.

Frances Fyfield: Undercurrents. Penguin Books, ISBN: 0142000442 (March, 2002), 307 p., $6.99.

Frances Fyfield: Undercurrents (UK 2001)

From the Publisher:
SOMETIMES THE ANSWER ISN'T IN THE FACTS. SOMETIMES IT'S IN THE EMOTIONS.
Henry Evans met Francesca Chisholm while backpacking around India. He loved her, but when her father died, his refusal to change his travel plans caused her to leave without him. It is a decision that has haunted his adult life and why twenty years later he has decided to find her. But what he discovers is not what he expects.

Francesca is in prison for murdering her five-year-old son.

The verdict was never in doubt. Francesca confessed to the killing, to pushing her son off the pier to drown in the dark undercurrents of the sea. Henry can't believe it, and so he decides to discover the truth, even if it is only to understand why she did it; even if it aggravates those who have only just come to terms with the atrocity...

Frances Fyfield: Undercurrents. Sphere, ISBN: 075153028X (May, 2001), 406 p., £6.99.

Frances Fyfield: Undercurrents (USA 2001)

From the Publisher:
For twenty years, Henry Evans has been haunted by a blurred but shining memory of his lost love, Francesca Chisholm. They met backpacking in India where he won, and lost, her love. Now this shy American has come looking for her, in her hometown on the English coast.

What he discovers is not what he expects. Henry receives a welcome as warm as the unforgiving February weather: his hotel is flooded, and he is forced to stay at the foreboding House of Enchantment. Then the solicitor he asks for information about tracing Francesca advises him to regard Francesca as dead. And when Henry finally hears the truth, he understands why.

Francesca is in prison for murdering her five-year-old son.

The verdict was never in doubt. Francesca confessed to the killing, admitted it was she who pushed her son off the pier, to drown in the dark undercurrents of the sea. Henry, though, can't believe it; it just doesn't tally with the woman he knew. And so he decides to stay to discover the truth.

Frances Fyfield: Undercurrents. Viking, ISBN: 0670896365 (April, 2001), 278 p., $23.95.

Frances Fyfield: Undercurrents (UK 2000)

From the Publisher:
Sometimes the answer isn't in the facts. Sometimes it's in the emotions.
Twenty years ago, Henry Evans met Francesca Chisholm whilst backpacking around India. He loved her -- her love of literature, her soul, her unerring sense of right and wrong. But when her father died, Henry left it too late to change his travel plans and she left without him. It is a decision that has haunted his adult life and why, two decades later, he has travelled from America to the English coastal town of Warbling to find her.

What he discovers is not what he expects. Henry receives a welcome as warm as the unforgiving February weather: his hotel is flooded, and he is forced to stay at the foreboding House of Enchantment; the solicitor he asks for information about tracing Francesca advises him to regard Francesca as dead. And when Henry finally hears the truth, he understands why.

Francesca is in prison for murdering her five-year-old son.

The verdict was never in doubt. Francesca confessed to the killing, admitted it was she who pushed her son off the pier, to drown in the dark undercurrents of the sea. Henry, though, can't believe it; it just doesn't tally with the woman he knew. And so he decides to stay to discover the truth, even if it is only to understand why she did it, even if it aggravates those who have only just come to terms with the atrocity...

A psychological thriller of chilling clarity, Undercurrents finds Britain's best female crime writer on fabulous form: a masterful mix of brooding suspense, delicious characterisation, precision plotting and... love.

Frances Fyfield: Undercurrents. Little, Brown, & Co., ISBN: 0316853860 (September, 2000), 278 p., £17.99.