Loretta Lawson
5 total works
Loretta Lawson is spending this weekend in a borrowed flat in New York on one of the hottest weekends of the summer. She has hardly arrived in the city when she gets the first of a series of obscene phone calls, and the next day, in the Metropolitan Museum, she gets the feeling that someone is watching and following her. She tries to shrug it off, but then several disturbing incidents occur which are not easy to dimiss, and the one person who might be able to help -her ex-husband John Tracey, in New York on a story - has too many problems of her own. Challenging, witty and unsettling, FULL STOP is Joan Smith's most sophisited and suspenseful novel to date.
When a woman's decomposed body is found in the aging barn of Oxford don Bridget Bennett's estate, Loretta knows her friend Bridget's shock is genuine. Unfortunately, the local constabulary are not so sure. And the tabloid press has a field day.
But when the police try to identify the dead woman and any possible connection to Bridget and her devoted husband, only Bridget seems alarmed at what might surface. Loretta tries to piece the puzzle together herself-with little success. Until a police blunder illuminates a dire suspicion she had all along....
"Here is crime fiction displaying its flexibility: working on disparate levels and contriving to be at once mysterious, entertaining and stimulating." - The Guardian
But when the police try to identify the dead woman and any possible connection to Bridget and her devoted husband, only Bridget seems alarmed at what might surface. Loretta tries to piece the puzzle together herself-with little success. Until a police blunder illuminates a dire suspicion she had all along....
"Here is crime fiction displaying its flexibility: working on disparate levels and contriving to be at once mysterious, entertaining and stimulating." - The Guardian
Loretta Lawson needs to escape London. Diagnosed with glandular fever and ordered to rest, she sets off for the countryside and the apparently idyllic home of Clara Wolstonecraft- children’s author, strident peace activist and distant acquaintance in possession of a spare room. It’s the perfect set up as long as Loretta doesn’t mind sharing her space with the peace camp currently residing on Clara’s grounds.
The scenery is beautiful, the house idyllic… but the peace does not last long. The camp is plagued by one incident after another- a break in, an attempted arson, a dinner party interrupted by blood red paint splattering the windows.
But Loretta soon realises that the attacks are the least of their worries. Clara herself is being targeted by anonymous letters, phone calls, menacing radio messages. And she hasn’t said a word to the friends and family who fill her home. Why is she being targeted, and what exactly does she have to hide? Loretta is determined to find out before the situation escalates. But it may already be too late…
The scenery is beautiful, the house idyllic… but the peace does not last long. The camp is plagued by one incident after another- a break in, an attempted arson, a dinner party interrupted by blood red paint splattering the windows.
But Loretta soon realises that the attacks are the least of their worries. Clara herself is being targeted by anonymous letters, phone calls, menacing radio messages. And she hasn’t said a word to the friends and family who fill her home. Why is she being targeted, and what exactly does she have to hide? Loretta is determined to find out before the situation escalates. But it may already be too late…