FFB: Harbingers of Fear

Welsh-born author Dorothy Simpson (b. 1933) started out her career as a French teacher and then spent many years as a marriage counselor, before turning to writing full time. She's known for the fifteen books in her series featuring Inspector Luke Thanet (and his colleague Sergeant Michael Lineham), the last of which was published in 1999 before a severe repetitive stress injury forced her to stop writing in 2000. One of the Thanet series, Last Seen Alive, received the Silver Dagger Award from the UK Crime Writers Association in 1985.

Simpson's very first novel was the 1977 psychological thriller Harbingers of Fear. Although that book was successful, Simpson's next four manuscripts were rejected, which is why she turned to writing the more traditional procedurals, determined to "devote her next efforts to creating an intriguing murder mystery staged around an engaging sleuth." Harbingers of Fear remains Simpson's only standalone thriller.

The plot of the novel centers on pregnant wife Sarah Royd, who finds a strange message left in her purse, BOAST NOT THYSELF OF TOMORROW; FOR THOU KNOWEST NOT WHAT A DAY MAY BRING FORTH, and thinks it might be the work of a religious maniac. But soon she realizes she's also being spied on and more of the sinister white cards with their macabre prophecies mysteriously appear and vanish after she has read them, each message more menacing than the last.

Out of fear, she turns to her husband, to friends and to the police, but none of them believes her, all attributing her claims to pregnancy hormones and hysteria. Left to fend for herself, Sarah delves into the mystery, starting to wonder herself if she's really going insane—as everyone seems to believe—until she's driven to a final, fateful confrontation with the source of her terror.

Since the author was a marriage counselor herself, it's not surprising that the relationship between the introspective, insecure Sarah and her strong-willed, much older husband would be as important to the plot as the mystery of the campaign to terrorize Sarah. Fortunately, the book doesn't read like a marriage manual, with the characters well drawn. Or as Kirkus said of another Simpson title, "Straightforward and absorbing, deftly written and adroitly plotted: another quiet winner."

Harbingers of Fear was reprinted as part of the Black Dagger Crime Series in 1986, and several of the author's works were also published in new editions from the mid-1990s to 2001. But all of Simpson's novels are somewhat difficult to find and will hopefully benefit from the increasing move of backlists to digital versions.

Comments

[Matt Paust]

It bothers me that after a successful debut novel, her next four were rejected. Her commitment is enviable. I must read this book!

[BV Lawson]

Guess not much has changed since then - many fine authors are still having problems getting their books in front of agents and publishers. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose...

[Deb]

Simpson's Luke Thanet series is very good (although Thanet seems a little too perfect sometimes), but I hadn't heard of this standalone work. The plot reminds me somewhat of the works of Celia Fremlin (The Hours Before Dawn, Uncle Paul, Listening in the Dust) where women's legitimate fears are belittled and dismissed (mostly by make authority figures) and it is left to the women to investigate and expose the culprit.

[BV Lawson]

That's an interesting comparison, Deb! Now I'll to hunt out a Fremlin book to re-read.