Show 17: the lawyer and crime writer on her new novel; Blood From Stone
Frances Fyfield is the pen-name of Frances Hegarty, a criminal lawyer, an occupation on which she bases many of her novels. She divides her time between London and Deal, and has won several awards, notably the Crime Writers' Association Silver Dagger.
Born and brought up in Derbyshire, Frances Hegarty read English at Newcastle University. After graduation, she took a course in criminal law and initially worked for the Metropolitan Police and later the Crown Prosecution Service. She claims "After a long diet of criminal law, including dangerous dogs, rape, mayhem and much, much murder, the indigestion of pity and fury provoked me to write. I wanted to write romance, but the domestically macabre always got in the way”.
Her many successful novels include two series with female protagonists; the ‘goody-goody’ prosecutor Helen West and the charming but sexually immoral solicitor Sarah Fortune.
She also writes psychological thrillers under the name of Frances Hegarty, among them, The Playroom, Half Light and Let's Dance. Her novels have been translated in fourteen different languages, and a number have been adapted for television. The most popular of Fyfield's novels, the Helen West series, have twice been adapted for television. Juliet Stevenson played Helen West in Trial by Fire (1999) and Amanda Burton later took on the role in a successful television series in 2002.
Her latest novel, Blood from Stone – an examination of cruelty and justice – is published in March 2008.
Blood from Stone
Marianne Shearer is at the height of her career, a dauntingly successful barrister, respected by her peers and revered by her clients. So why did she kill 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.