Staring at the Light by
Frances Fyfield
hbk out March 99
Published by Bantam
Opening a new novel by Frances Fyfield is always a profoundly unsettling experience, for she has never conformed to neat expectations of what a mystery writer should dish up. In Fyfield's world, there are no neat and easy solutions, only answers that are often more uncomfortable than the questions she poses.
No-one understands better the obsessive demands of love unsatisfied or the menace that lurks beneath the surface of apparently civilised life. When we look at the world through her compassionate eyes, we see humanity revealed in all its glory, its brutality and its pathos.
But with Staring at the Light, she has harnessed those talents more disturbingly than ever before.
Johnny and Cannon are twins who grew up in Northern Ireland in the shadow of terrorism. Cannon became a maker of bombs, not out of political conviction but out of expediency. And also because he liked them. Johnny's role was to turn Cannon's skill into hard cash. With no-one to rely on but each other, the brothers developed a strange and twisted love, rooted in obsessive need and fed by their identical disfigurement.
Then for Cannon, deliverance fell into his path. First he met Julie, who revealed his capacity to love someone other than Johnny. Then eccentric lawyer Sarah Fortune provided the means to physical transformation in the shape of her dentist and occasional lover, William. Cannon's final redemption came with the recognition that his talent for painting was a more than adequate substitute for his talent for destruction.
But for Johnny, Cannon's salvation is no cause for rejoicing. Every step into the light for his brother is a leap further into darkness for Johnny, now a successful property developer. The caged animal that paces inside the prison of Johnny's superficial respectability is about to break free, with appalling consequences for someone. He has set himself a deadline to destroy Julie. Only if Cannon can preserve her beyond that deadline will he be allowed to keep her.
Sarah Fortune has taken on herself the task of keeping Cannon and Julie safe. But Sarah is no conventional lawyer. Her lifestyle is eccentric, her love is scattered throughout the lives of many people and she has a knack for finding the most eccentric solution to life's problems.
So she stashes Julie behind the high walls of a convent where her aunt is a nun and installs Cannon in the last place Johnny will look -- one of his own derelict properties.
But Johnny is an adversary with many resources and the obsessive commitment of the spurned lover. He's also clever enough to know when to show his hand and when to lull his opponents into a false sense of security. But when he strikes, the most innocent bystanders are sucked into his vile conspiracy to reclaim his brother for himself.
As the stories of the main characters unfold, Fyfield subtly ratchets up the tension to almost unbearable levels. A terrible sense of impending horror rises from the pages of this intense and absorbing narrative.
When the appalling climax finally arrives, it is almost too terrible to endure. Few novels have ever given me nightmares, but after Staring at the Light, I was afraid to go to sleep. Suffice it to say that Fyfield will never be guest of honour at a British Dental Association dinner.
As if this were not enough, Fyfield keeps in reserve one final terrible revelation that turns her story into tragedy in the truest sense.
This is a remarkable achievement by an author whose reputation for stylish, intelligent writing grows deservedly with every book. It sets a high water mark for contemporary crime fiction. I doubt I will read a better book this year.
(
Val McDermid
- Gold Dagger winner & creator of Lindsay Gordon, Kate Brannigan & Tony Hill)
Staring at the Light by
Frances Fyfield