Sins of the Fathers

November 16, 2015
This baffling standalone from British author Fraser (The Unburied Past) deals sensitively with issues of family and relationships. In East Sussex, piano teacher Jill Lawrence is content to share a house with her grown daughter and her daughter’s family, though she misses her husband, a freelance photographer, who died in a suicide bombing in Egypt the previous year. In Scotland, Beth Monroe, a childless widow, has become attached to her new lodger, Johnnie Stewart, but she is dismayed when he disappears one day. After a week, Beth goes to the police, who show her a photograph of Johnnie and tell her he’s been stabbed to death. A third, seemingly unrelated plot line involves an extended family in North Yorkshire. Keeping track of all the characters can be a challenge, and frequent changes of locale make for choppy pacing. Still, Fraser does her usual fine job of planting red herrings and subtle clues to the puzzle’s solution as her well-crafted plot builds to a surprising conclusion.

Starred review from December 1, 2015
Three families, unknown to each other, are about to get the biggest shock of their lives. For Beth Monroe in Scotland, the boarder she took in and fell head over heels for has disappeared. In Sussex, Jill Lawrence and her two grown children are just beginning to recover from the tragic death of their husband and father in a suicide bombing in Egypt. David and William Gregory of Yorkshire have just lost their mother, but they never knew their father, who died in a train crash decades earlier. When a man is found stabbed to death in an alley in Scotland, none of the family members has any idea that this grisly discovery will change their lives forever. Added to the complex plot are a series of art thefts, a hit-and-run accident, a burgeoning romance, and a sordid affair. In hands less capable than Fraser's, this complicated mix might have been confusing, but the genre veteran offers a taut, moving story of love, loss, hate, and redemption that will keep readers enthralled from the first page until the devastating climax, when all of the disparate pieces fall tragically into place. Fine popular fiction for mystery and romance readers.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2018
Mark Richmond and his wife, Sophie, would have split up long ago if it weren't for their little girl, but it's now clear that their marriage is over. To escape the constant tension, Mark books a holiday. Arriving at King's Cross station to catch his train, he's hailed by an attractive young woman who seems to have been waiting for him impatiently. Before he can figure out what's going on, he's on a train to a family reunion with his new friend, Helena Crawford. Helena admits it's a case of mistaken identity; she was supposed to meet a man who had agreed to play the role of her fianc� for a week. Intrigued by Helena and thinking a family reunion will be a bit of a lark, Mark agrees to pretend he's the fianc�. What could go wrong? As it turns out, the Crawford family seems extraordinarily prone to mishaps, scandal, and even death. Mark finds himself increasingly drawn into the family dramas while at the same time learning important lessons about himself. Fraser is an excellent storyteller, and her latest domestic thriller doesn't disappoint.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

June 4, 2018
Sexual peccadillos drive the plot of this well-crafted standalone from British author Fraser (A Tangled Thread) about three families, each with its own secrets and long-buried resentments. Mark Richmond, who has problems at home and at work, is waiting in line in London’s King’s Cross train station to buy a ticket to York when Helena Crawford, who has mistaken him for her hired escort, whirls into his life. Mark soon finds himself agreeing to accompany Helena to Scotland for her parents’ ruby wedding anniversary and to pose as her fiancé, Adam Ryder. Flashback six months to the 60th birthday party of Peter Kingsley, the father of Mark’s now-estranged wife, in Kent. Trouble is brewing between Peter and Mark’s father, who have been friends for decades. Although those expecting serious crimes will be disappointed, Fraser skillfully keeps the reader guessing as to who will be/has been sleeping with whom. This is soap opera of the highest order. Agent: Juliet Burton, Juliet Burton Literary Agency (U.K.).

June 1, 2018
A chance meeting and a hasty decision plunge a young man into another family's problems as well as his own.Mark Richmond is the adoring father of Florence and the puzzled husband of Sophie, the spoiled daughter of Peter Kingsley, the best friend of Mark's father. Sophie's been distant of late, but her father's sudden suicide quickly broadens the cracks in their marriage when she uses the bereavement as an excuse for her refusal to come home to London with Florence. Needing a break, Mark leaves on a walking holiday but is scooped up at King's Cross by a young woman who mistakes him for a man she hired to play the part of her fiance at a family gathering in Drumlee, Scotland. Helena Crawford suspects that her younger sister will be announcing her engagement at a party for their parents' ruby wedding anniversary and wants to get in first. Out of curiosity, Mark, now to be known as Adam Ryder, agrees to go along with the deception, a role made trickier by the hidden secrets and unexplained crosscurrents within Helena's family. Helena's sister has befriended a forlorn young woman whose claim that Drumlee was the favorite spot of her recently deceased mother adds another layer to the puzzle. When Mark finally gets a chance to check his cellphone, it's full of desperate messages from family and friends. As the story switches between Scotland and England, past and present, Mark slowly learns the secrets behind both the tragedies and comedies he's become involved with, secrets whose resolutions will heal many lives.Instead of a run-of-the-mill mystery, Fraser (Retribution, 2018, etc.) provides a series of puzzles and stories of love gone wrong that make her tale of tangled family relationships consistently absorbing.

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