Book 1

A Question of Guilt

by Frances Fyfield

Published 3 October 1988

Eileen Cartwright is a woman who knows how to get what she wants. And she wants her handsome solicitor, despite the fact that he is already married.

She plots the murder of his wife with chilling ease - but chooses an amateur for the job. He is quickly caught, but proving Eileen's involvement is tougher for the police as meticulous planning and influence put her seemingly above the law. Brought together for the first time, Helen West, crown prosecutor, and Geoffrey Bailey, detective superintendent, are faced with this woman's defiant evil. And when she enlists the help of a young psychopath, they are pulled inexorably towards a tense climax of frightening and frenzied violence.


Trial by Fire

by Frances Fyfield

Published 1 October 1990
When the naked body of a woman is found near the Essex commuter village of Branston the locals are as baffled as they are shocked. A crime of passion? Surely not here. But when Crown Prosecutor Helen West and Detective Superintendent Geoffrey Bailey scratch at the thin veneer of gentility they discover a hidden world of passion, envy and betrayal - primed and ready to explode . . .

Without Consent

by Frances Fyfield

Published 7 November 1996

Prosecutor Helen West views the whole subject with a jaundiced eye. In this case, she doesn't even like the officer accused, the volatile and compulsively unfaithful DS Ryan, friend of her lover, Superintendent Bailey. Ryan maintains a stubborn silence in the face of the charge but when the physical evidence against him proves to be unusually strong, West and Bailey assume his guilt.

Until slowly, preoccupied as they are with their own loves and loyalties, a different suspect begins to emerge. A man who knows the law and how to avoid it. A man who believes that there is no such thing as rape when the victim welcomes him. And there is no legal formula to deal with someone who brings chocolates and flowers, leaves without a trace, corrupts the witness with her own shame and learns to kill with impunity . . .


A Clear Conscience

by Frances Fyfield

Published 10 November 1994
Helen West's personal life is in need of repair, and she decides the first move is to tidy up her home, helped by her cleaning lady, Cath, who is trapped in a miserable marriage. Working by day with domestic violence cases, Helen finds it too easy to turn a blind eye to Cath's unhappiness, but then her personal and professional lives collide as she witnesses the destructive forces of love and guilt, and finds herself applying her own version of justice.