Synopsis
I have been on nodding terms with death since age nineteen. Death holds precious little mystery for me. During the last sixteen years I have eaten death for breakfast . . .
For accomplished writer and chef Clytie Churchill suffering and love come hand in hand. The life of each person she loves seems to come to a desperate end – sickness, suicide, death by drowning, orphan and widower Clytie has grieved through it all. During a long night reminiscing in a remote French Chateau she resolves to throw out all this Foul Matter – like the old proofs of a finished book.
But there is still one mystery to solve – when she learns there is a chance that little Finn, her dead husband’s son, could have survived the sinking of his father’s boat Clytie seeks out lawyer and ex-lover Anthony to help her track him down.
Awardwinning author Joan Aiken touches upon love and death with a thoughtfulness and courage that makes Foul Matter a romantic suspense novel like no other.
Details
17 May 2018
9781509878710Reviews
Joan Aiken has written with her usual ebullient wit a book that is as frothy and easily digestible as one of its heroine’s very best soufflésNina Bawden, Telegraph
The gifted prolific British author tells another mesmerizing story with the characteristically ‘different’ Aiken touchesPublisher’s Weekly
Aiken holds the reader’s attention from start to finish – an action-packed tale told reflectively, intelligently, and at times movinglySunday Telegraph
Clytie Churchill, cooker up of banquets and cookbooks, has the richest hoard of incident-and accident prone relations . . . her menus sound super but her adventures are all heartburn. In fact in her own words to her publisher about an old manuscript – ‘Foul Matter. Who needs it?’The Observer
