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Sarah Fortune, by her own admission, was not a particularly good lawyer. What she is, however, is a good people person. Especially if those people are men -- men she likes. Sarah has left the practice of law and her life has a new direction; now she keeps the men she likes happy. Strictly by appointment, of course. Sarah has a very secure London flat in a building which has a good address. She received the flat as a bequest. When her employer, the head of her law firm, and his wife, Dulcie, told her of her inheritance, she was amazed. And she was very pleased no longer to have the burden of making the monthly mortgage. Dulcie is now a widow, but still one of Sarah's closest friends. Dulcie asks Sarah to check on an old acquaintance of hers. Dulcie hasn't heard from the man recently and worries something is amiss.Ê So she tells Sarah approximately where Henry lives, which is not too far from Sarah. Sarah encounters a man sitting on his stoop with a cast on his foot. She commiserates with him, says he must be Henry, and makes his acquaintance. Sarah learns that Henry is having problems with the owner of the upstairs flat and he has become so cowed by the overbearing woman upstairs that he is afraid to leave his own flat. Sarah takes him to her place and proposes a temporary swap of homes. Sarah has a small problem too; she is receiving threatening letters from someone who claims to be the rightful owner of her flat and he says if she doesn't sign it over to him that an 'accident' just might happen. This is a book with a complex plot, as fans have come to expect from Frances Fyfield. All of the several major characters are tied together, but unbeknownst to any of them. There is Alan, the arsonist, who is one of Sarah's customers and who is in love with her; the delusional JT who thinks he owns her flat; Henry; his neighbor Mrs Hornby; Eleanor the masseur; and Dulcie. Security, or the lack of it, is a main subject in this book. Some of the characters take it for granted; others are obsessed with it. All of them come to find out that what they think is secure may all be an illusion. The title, SAFER THAN HOUSES is of course a saying that I think means to be very safe. The houses we visit here are not always so, and the truths which are ultimately revealed to each of the characters makes this a unique and fascinating book.
Reviewed by Lorraine Gelly, July 2006
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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