Perfectly Pure and Good

Sarah Fortune was an attorney in London working for a firm which was headed by a man called Ernest Matthewson. She was soon to be sent to a small seaside village in Norfolk to sort out a family's problems and affairs of the deceased.

Henry Pardoe had been dead for many years and his wife who was left could not or was not able to cope with the financial side of things as she was rather unstable her name was Mouse. Mouse died and Henry's two sons and daughter the ones that would inherit now that Mouse had died were not much help to Sarah.

Julian who was the eldest was a very successful physician but it was a very different story when it came to his private life which was rather a mess. He had developed a deep attraction towards his sister who was only eighteen. This was not very nice for Joanna who never gained any confidence in going out to meet and socialise with other people. She would have loved to go and meet other boys her own age but Julian had done a good job in preventing that to happen.

Edward who was the other son was an Estate Agent but he always seem to want to fulfil some goal or other which he thought his father had wanted.

Now Sarah had to discuss with Julian why she was there and to explain her actual role which was to assess the financial situation for them.

This would have been much easier task but she sensed a funny feeling that the ghost of Charles Tysall which seemed to be lurking in her midst was watching.

Sarah had remembered Charles very well as not a very nice character. He was not very pleasant towards women particularly if they had red hair which Sarah also had.

One of his wives called Elizabeth died in Merton, she was a very beautiful and attractive lady and in some ways Sarah could relate to her. She actually walked into the sea and never returned.

This is a murder mystery and also what you call a psychological drama.

I find that Francis Fyfield writes in a similar way to Ruth Rendall with several different subplots going on at the same time. Bouncing from one to another. This style of writing can be irritating to some people but I do not have a problem with this.