Feminist Mystery Reviews
BLIND DATE
Frances Fyfield
Viking, Sep 1998, $21.95, 272 pp.
ASIN: 0-670-87889-8
Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
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.
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