Blind Date [Hardcover]

Frances Fyfield (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1998

Frances Fyfield's novels are "dark, stylish, stay-with-you-at-night psychological suspense of the highest caliber" (Minette Walters)--smart, subtle, compelling, superbly written--and about women. Vulnerable women. Strong women who are also lonely. Women whom life has damaged. And, of course, dead women. In Blind Date, she weaves her hallmark stealthy menace, "unflinching characterizations" (The New York Times Book Review), and acute social insight into a crime novel that powerfully transcends its genre. Elisabeth Kennedy is a classic Fyfield heroine, a complicated, prickly ex-police detective recovering from a brutal attack of deadly acid--a woman who is determined to fight back. As she tracks her quarry through a London peopled by the pathetic and the poisonous, Elisabeth is headed for something far more chilling than loneliness, more savage than self-doubt. With Blind Date, "the best crime writer alive in Britain" (A. N. Wilson) is poised for breakout sales.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Frances Fyfield is a London criminal lawyer who specializes in complex stories about the tangled relationships between the sexes and the big and small crimes that result. Her latest is a subtle, slowly building story that gradually brings together a former policewoman intent on revenge for a murdered sister; two women who find that signing up for an unusual dating service might result in more action than they had in mind; and an apparently kindly and protective man who is also involved with the deadly dating service. Fyfield is the best in the business at showing how women's fears can shape their lives. Other excellent examples in paperback: A Clear Conscience, Deep Sleep, Perfectly Pure and Good, A Question of Guilt, and Without Consent. --Dick Adler

From Publishers Weekly

Fyfield (Without Consent; A Question of Guilt) is an oddly elliptical writer whose stories often sneak up on the reader. In her newest, three plot lines, quite disparate at first, gradually intertwine. Elisabeth Kennedy is a former police detective who had apparently caught the man who murdered her sister, only to have a judge declare she had entrapped him. The man then killed himself?but was he the real murderer? Two of her friends sign up with an odd dating agency to find men, and one of them gets killed, another roughed up. Meanwhile some of Joe Maxell's friends are signed up with the same agency, and big, kindly Joe is trying to share the London church tower where Elisabeth lives: is it to protect her, and if so, from what? Can her young nephew, Matt, obsessed with the precious stones his grandfather may have squirreled away, have seen his mother's murderer? In the course of her cunningly plotted tale, Fyfield explores many anxieties afflicting Elisabeth, her widowed mother and other female characters: fear of loneliness, of being unloved, of losing one's home, of creating a child you can't control. Some of these considerations fail to convince; nor is Elisabeth believable as a former cop, and that the entire cast seems to know each other gives the book a strangely claustrophobic air. But Fyfield is a superb, effective stylist who creates a deliciously murky atmosphere and indelible characters. Author tour. (Sept.) FYI: Penguin will simultaneously publish the paperback edition of Without Consent.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult; First Edition edition (September 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670878898
• ISBN-13: 978-0670878895
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,794,287 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't wait for consent to read a terrific twisted tale, September 20, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Blind Date (Hardcover)

All London police officer Elisabeth Kennedy wants out of life is to catch the SOB who murdered her sister Emma. Obsessed by her quest, Elisabeth thinks she finally has the culprit. However, the court throws out the case due to entrapment by the law. A humiliated Elisabeth, realizing that she has failed and is beyond redemption, retires from the force, turning into a semi-hermit.

However, instead of finding an uneasy peace in seclusion, Elisabeth becomes the victim of a brutal assault with acid that deforms her visage. As she recovers in her weird home at the top of a converted bell tower, Elisabeth knows that she must ferret out her sister's killer for her own sake and before the twisted man kills once again as he has done several times since he murdered Emma.

BLIND DATE is a serpentine police procedural/vigilante serial killer work that has several distinct major sub-plots that brilliantly consolidate into a first rate novel. Elisabeth is the typical Frances Fyfield heroine. She is scarred by life's worst blows, but keeps on ticking. Anyone who takes pleasure from a fantastic mystery, should visit the twisted tales (see WITHOUT CONSENT) of Ms. Fyfield because they are some of the genre's best books.

Harriet Klausner

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Tantalizing, but disappointing; the plot defies belief, October 12, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Blind Date (Hardcover)

The main characters are well realized and the scenes with Elizabeth and Joe are quite good, memorable, and do keep the book afloat. However, the plot is entirely unbelievable; it's as if London contains about 20 people--the figures in this book, all crossing paths, all knowing each other, all related in less than interesting ways. There is a sub-plot, which I could have done without; namely, mother and the vulgar rich American, of course, which did nothing to move the more interesting story along; that of Elizabeth and her past, dealing with her present and unknowable future. Also, a nit-picky thing: the volume I read contained too many typos and a couple of grammatical howlers. The book was that riveting that I noticed. I wait for the next and hope for better.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Really readable-- strong and edgy book, April 13, 2003

By 

frumiousb "frumiousb" (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Blind Date (Paperback)

I picked this book up in a discount book store somewhere in Philly after being snowed in on my way back to Europe. It looked like the best of the offerings they had, but I frankly wasn't expecting very much. I was pleasantly suprised, and found myself very quickly drawn into the book and its main character.

I liked Elizabeth Kennedy and I liked the way her character developed. The tension between her and her sister were a good way to open the situation and the way that it developed further was impressive. Small points off for some coincidences that strained credulity, but in general it was believable, and well worth the time that it took to read.