Perfectly Pure and Good [Paperback]

Frances Fyfield (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 1994

Sarah Fortune, first encountered in "Shadows on the Mirror", is sent to Merton-on-Sea in Norfolk to sort out the inheritance problems of the small town's premier family. But she discovers much more than just an ambiguously-worded will - and also has to confront the pain of her own past.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With this nimble meld of ghost story, moral fable and psychological drama, Fyfield ( Shadow Play ; Question of Guilt ) joins the ranks of those writers--Peter Dickinson and Michael Dibdin among them--who reinvent the genre with social commentary and impressionistic narrative brushstrokes. Red-haired Sarah Fortune, a young and effortlessly attractive widowed lawyer, goes to East Anglia to sort out the muddled legal affairs of the family of recently deceased Henry Pardoe. In the same seaside town two years earlier, red-haired Elisabeth Tysall committed suicide by drowning. A year later her husband Charles--who had also been violently obsessed with Sarah--did the same, walking into the sea. While villagers report sightings of both Tysall ghosts, Sarah gradually discerns the twists within the troubled Pardoe family. She deals with a pouting, brutal younger son, a bitter older son (a doctor and once the lover of Elisabeth Tysall) and a teenaged daughter in love with a local boy; the widow Pardoe appears to be over-the-top loony. Honing in on their secrets, Sarah gradually reveals secrets of her own. This is a complex, unsettling novel.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Another psychological mystery for readers who appreciate a protagonist with a lawyerly viewpoint. Sarah Fortune's law firm posts her to a seaside town to do estate work for a peculiar family characterized by weird members and dangerous secrets.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Corgi; First edition (November 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0552141747
• ISBN-13: 978-0552141741
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,102,191 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Strong Entry In Intriguing Series, December 24, 2000

By 

N. Quast (Dulles, Virginia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Perfectly Pure and Good (Paperback)

Frances Fyfield is master of moody mysteries in tone of grey. This second novel with Sarah Fortune has the usual exploration of convoluted relationships and emotions that fom the core of the mystery. Key among these is the feelings that draw into places we know we should not go, but can't help. Tight and suspenseful, this demonstrates why Fyfield is head and shoulders above most other writers of this kind of dark suspense.

2.0 out of 5 stars An unpleasant disappointment., March 12, 2007

By 

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

This review is from: Perfectly Pure and Good (Paperback)

This is not the first novel that I have read by Fyfield. I had first read Blind Date and enjoyed it quite a bit. On the strength of that, I picked up Perfectly Pure and Good. I was really looking forward to reading it.

What a difference between the two books. I thought that Perfectly Pure and Good was really wretched. The plot was unbelievable; was there anyone who did not see the big surprise in the plot coming a mile away? The main character was even more unbelievable-- a beautiful spontaneous lawyer who solves problems by sleeping with people. She even sleeps with the obnoxious mildly sadistic characters, which was disturbing on a number of levels. It was not offensive, precisely. It was just plain silly.

Fyfield did better with the male characters in the book-- the only reason that I gave this two stars instead of just one.

Skip this one and read something from another Fyfield series. I sincerely hope that this book and not Blind Date was the anomaly.