Blood From Stone - Tapa dura

A genuinely original and imaginative writer, [Fyfield] offers a fascinating read... An admirable crime novel (Literary Review)

Fyfield is routinely and rightly praised for her elegant prose... What doesn't get mentioned so often is that when it comes to the dissection of the human spirit, she is the most brutal scalpel-wielder we have...one of Highsmith's true heirs (The Guardian)

Blood From Stone has all the complexity you'd expect from this award-winning grande dame of crime fiction - she's up there with Rendell, James, McDermid and Walters... Simply terrific (Observer)

As always, Fyfield leaves her readers with shivers that take a long time to go away' The Times ('Among her myriad literary skills, Frances Fyfield is adept at creating blood-chilling psychopaths. Like her American predecessor Patricia Highsmith, she takes us deep into their twisted psychology')

Marianne Shearer is at the height of her career, a dauntingly successful barrister, respected by her peers and revered by her clients. So why has she killed herself? Her latest case had again resulted in an acquittal, though the outcome was principally due to the death of the prime witness after Marianne's forceful cross-examination. Had this wholly professional and unemotional lawyer been struck by guilt or uncertainty, or is there some secret to be discovered in her blandly comfortable private life? Her death reveals a paucity of friends, a grasping brother and a tenacious colleague, Peter Friel, who is determined to find out if that last trial held the reason for her taking her own life. The transcript holds intriguing clues, but it is another witness at the trial who holds the key to the truth and she is far from sure that she can reveal her secrets without releasing even more deceit and destruction.