Frances Fyfield

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 This article does not cite any references or sources. (September 2007)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.
Frances Hegarty

Born 1948
London
Pen name Frances Fyfield
Occupation Lawyer and writer
Nationality English
Genres Crime

Frances Fyfield (born 1948) is the pseudonym of Frances Hegarty, a British lawyer and crime-writer.

Born and brought up in Derbyshire, Frances Hegarty read English at Newcastle University. After graduation, she took a course in criminal law. She worked initially for the Metropolitan Police and later the Crown Prosecution Service. She claims "After a long diet of criminal law, including dangerous dogs, rape, mayhem and much, much murder, the indigestion of pity and fury provoked me to write. I wanted to write romance, but the domestically macabre always got in the way." Fyfield has won several awards, including the Crime Writers' Association Silver Dagger (for Deep Sleep) and has been nominated for many others. Her last book Safer than Houses was nominated for the inaugural Duncan Lawrie Dagger (2006).

She also writes psychological thrillers under the name of Frances Hegarty, among them, The Playroom, Half Light and Let's Dance, which was published in 1995.

Her novels have been translated in fourteen different languages, and a number have been adapted for television. The most popular of Fyfield's novels, the Helen West series, have twice been adapted for television. Juliet Stevenson played Helen West in Trial by Fire (1999) and Amanda Burton later took on the role in a successful British television series in 2002.

[edit] Bibliography

Helen West Novels

  • A Question of Guilt (1988) nominated for an Edgar Award
  • Trial by Fire (1990) [US Title: Not That Kind of Place] Rumpole Award
  • Deep Sleep (1991) John Creasey Memorial Award, Silver Dagger Award
  • Shadow Play (1993)
  • A Clear Conscience (1994)
  • Without Consent (1996)

Sarah Fortune Novels

  • Shadows on the Mirror (1989)
  • Perfectly Pure and Good (1994)
  • Staring at the Light (1999)
  • Looking Down (2004)
  • Safer Than Houses (2005)

Other Novels

  • Blind Date (1998)
  • Undercurrents (2000)
  • The Nature of the Beast (2001)
  • Seeking Sanctuary (2003)
  • The Art of Drowning (2006)

Novels as Frances Hegarty

  • The Playroom (1991)
  • Half Light (1992)
  • Let's Dance

[edit] Filmography

  • Helen West (2002) TV Series
  • The Blind Date (2000)
  • Trial by Fire (1999) (TV)
Languages