Clare Francis

My husband has several Claire Francis books on the shelf & I've never wanted to read one. For a book club challenge, this title seemed appropriate, so I gave it a go.

Well.

That was really very good. Claire starts the story waking up in hospital after serious accident that appears to have resulted from a break in. She's got a broken spine - with all the uncertainties that entails - and head injuries. Slowly through the book you meet her family, husband, husband's business partner and a shady show more character from her past. There are three men with something to hide and lose in this, Ben (the husband), Simon (the business partner) and Terry (the shady character). By turns each of them seems to have the most to gain from the situation, to have more information than he should. It twists and turns all the way, with Ben's flitting about seeming suspicious, then Simon's solicitude and Terry, who has been rebuffed before, still trying to be involved.

There's money and business dealings of the shady and honest sort, there are lies being told and retold and plenty of mist and murk. Through which Claire has to see her way through. It twists and turns and facts come to light, or are presented in a new light and re-examined on a regular basis. The cast of characters is quite tight, but well presented and there are question marks over all of them at some point in the tale. All in all a most satisfactory read and I will be heading back to his bookshelves for another one at some point. show less

What an intense read and such a cliffhanger! ARGH! It's almost unfair to end a book like that!

In this second book, we get to learn more about the Beast and see how Benella's feelings towards him developed. At the same time, she comes to discover her own sexuality but in such an innocent way that it is endearing.

The perceived deceit had me rage out loud. That one blindsided me. I expected nothing less from the Baker and Tennen but this one really came out of nowhere. I can only hope that she show more becomes redeemed (or at the very least explain the deceit) in some way in the third installment.

A great story so that has gripped me from the very first page. show less

No, not the American TV series about Carrie Mathison and Nicholas Brody, the thriller by British author Clare Francis. Francis is a proficient thriller writer, but it is some years since I last read one of her books: until I picked one at random off my shelf one day.
‘Homeland’ is set after World War Two in the quiet rural corner of England that is the Somerset Levels. A land of rising and ebbing water levels, and unworldly place of withies and willows. Into this walks Billy Greer on his show more return from the war, going back to the house of his uncle and aunt where he spent the difficult teenage years before the war. There, he finds the house and farm in disarray, his uncle dramatically aged, and his aunt upstairs confined to bed after a stroke. And he meets again the woman who made his spine tingle when they were both teenagers.
Will he stay to rebuild the farm, or will he go to the promised job in London. And what of Annie, the local girl he could not forget while he fought his way around Europe?
Underlying the telling of Billy’s story is that of the Polish soldiers, in a holding camp while they await either return to Poland or settlement in the UK. It is a difficult decision: their beloved country is unrecognizable and run by the Soviet Union, but they do not feel 100% welcome in England. Wladyslaw, a literature student who left university to join the Polish army, is an intellectual and a dreamer. But he takes a job working for Billy Greer, helping to set the rundown farm to rights. And there he meets local schoolteacher Stella who agrees to give him English lessons.
This feels like a quiet tale - and it is not a thriller in the ‘spy story’ definition – but it is a story which kept me turning the pages. There are many uncertainties: the future of the Poles, the various love triangles, locals and immigrants living alongside each other without a common language with inevitable arguments and misunderstandings. The denouement is not what I expected.
Having loved this, I now want to re-read Clare Francis’ other books.
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-reviews-a-z/ show less

Hugh Gwynne, in the middle of a court case, becomes obsessed with the idea that his wife, Lizzie, was killed by an arsonist. She had died in a fire at their home, a fire the police insisted was accidental, but nothing seemed to fit, there were too many things out of place.

In the meantime, his client, Tom Deacon, a war veteran claiming PTSD after a car crash in which he saw his daughter burned to death, is furious with Hugh because Hugh had revealed some negative information about Tom that show more threatens his case which had appeared headed for victory until an anonymous letter arrived with the information.

Hugh's son Charlie has a history with drugs and Hugh worries that perhaps one of his contacts had killed his wife. But she was also involved in finding a witness to a killing that she had stumbled on while working with her clients in the projects.

An interesting story that has less mystery and more a treatise on bereavement and obsession. Still, I would read more of her work. show less