Not That Kind of Place

Solicitor Helen West and Detective Chief Superintendent Geoffrey Bailey, first encountered in A Question of Guilt , must solve a murder while learning whether their newfound love can last. The body of a local woman, wife of a prominent builder, is found buried in a woods near the village of Branston, where Helen and Bailey have moved for a year to become better acquainted. Evidence quickly leads Bailey to the victim's former lover, a teacher who now is romantically linked with Helen's only friend in the village. Because of her personal involvement, Helen is barred from the case, despite her position in the Crown Prosecution Service. Investigating privately, however--over Bailey's objections--Helen is drawn to the Crown Hotel, meeting place of the lovers, with its argumentative and unhappy proprietors and retarded teenage son, who is a friend of the murdered woman's daughter. There she makes a shocking discovery leading to a tragic denouement. Fyfield writes a sophisticated combination of legal and police procedural, drawing a compelling portrait of a love affair between two adults who have to accept each other's reality before forging a life together. ( May )