Dangerous Thoughts (U)

by Celia Fremlin

'Britain's equivalent to Patricia Highsmith, Celia Fremlin wrote psychological thrillers that changed the landscape of crime fiction for ever: her novels are domestic, subtle, penetrating - and quite horribly chilling.' Andrew Taylor

Clare Wakefield - protagonist of Celia Fremlin's 1991 novel, her fourteenth - is more dismayed than elated when she learns of her journalist husband's escape from Middle Eastern kidnappers. Edwin is a difficult man, and home life had been so much more relaxed without him. But dismay turns to fear once Clare begins to suspect that Edwin has practiced an extraordinary deception - and for the purpose of murder.

'A thoughtful, entertaining thriller.' Booklist


'I cannot recommend [it] too highly.' Time Out

'Celia Fremlin is an astonishing writer, who explores that nightmare country where brain, mind and self battle to establish the truth. She illuminates her dark world with acute perception and great wit.' Natasha Cooper

352 pages, Hardcover

First published April 11, 1991

About the author

Celia was born in Kingsbury, now part of London, England. She was the daughter of Heaver Fremlin and Margaret Addiscott. Her older brother, John H. Fremlin, later became a nuclear physicist. Celia studied at Somerville College, Oxford University. From 1942 to 2000 she lived in Hampstead, London. In 1942 she married Elia Goller, with whom she had three children; he died in 1968. In 1985, Celia married Leslie Minchin, who died in 1999. Her many crime novels and stories helped modernize the sensation novel tradition by introducing criminal and (rarely) supernatural elements into domestic settings. Her 1958 novel The Hours Before Dawn won the Edgar Award in 1960.

With Jeffrey Barnard, she was co-presenter of a BBC2 documentary “Night and Day” describing diurnal and nocturnal London, broadcast 23 January 1987.

Fremlin was an advocate of assisted suicide and euthanasia. In a newspaper interview she admitted to assisting four people to die.[1] In 1983 civil proceedings were brought against her as one of the five members of the EXIT Executive committee which had published “A Guide to Self Deliverance” , but the court refused to declare the booklet unlawful.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celia...]

Reviews

[Roman Clodia · Rating 4 out of 5]

** Mild spoilers below **

How can you accuse a man of violent crime when no violent crime has been committed? The only crime I could accuse him of was the crime of Dangerous Thoughts

This later Fremlin (pub. 1991) makes use of all her strengths but with a more modern setting than the earlier books: Edwin, a journalist, comes home from being kidnapped in Lebanon, and his wife Clare finds herself increasingly disconcerted and suspicious...

What Fremlin does so well is to capture a certain type of domestic dynamic: the 'housewife' who is both tied to her role and associated identity yet who is also troubled by it. Here Clare (this is a 1st person narrative) tells us she no longer loves Edwin and finds him a bit of a prima donna and domestic bully, yet she's still invested in what it means to be a traditional 'wife' with reflexes of loyalty and cover-up. She is as much mother or nanny as she is partner, having to watch over Edwin to ensure he doesn't go off the rails...

There's another marriage, too, under the Fremlin microscope, this time with an older man and a young and beautiful, if rather silly, wife - and how the interplay works of the two couples makes for gripping reading.

As ever, Fremlin is an acute observer of people and keeps this tale moving along briskly. The suspense of waiting for what we think must happen makes this a page turner but there's also a distinctive dark humour to Fremlin's narrative voice that makes this slip down very easily. For me, this is perhaps the most Patricia Highsmith-alike of Fremlin's novels. Just a shame it slightly fizzles out at the end.

[Brian E Reynolds · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this her 13th novel published in 1992, Celia Fremlin, the master of domestic suspense novels, creates another of her housewife protagonist in Clare, a housewife and mother of a teenager living with her independent journalist husband Edwin, another of Fremlin’s great feckless husbands. The story is about events following Edwin’s return from being a terrorist hostage in the Mideast, largely involving Clare’s suspicions of Edwin’s actual actions and attitudes toward two fellow journalist-hostages.

I really, really enjoyed this one. It was stellar because:
- The main character and narrator Clare provides a well-drawn viewpoint for the reader. She is the typical Fremlin put-upon housewife of the 60s but updated with the addition of the confident self-awareness of someone who lived through the 70s and 80s.
Clare’s character is balanced and interesting enough that the only fault with the character is that the reader wonders why she ended up with;
- Edwin who is a stellar example of the feckless husband that Fremlin so expertly crafts. Their marital relationship keeps things interesting while Clare’s thoughts on what she thinks is happening could possibly even be wrong, adding another dimension of tension to the plot events;
- Plot events that are exciting and not always foreseen, resulting in;
- A finale that was unforeseen by me and, while not what I thought I wanted in an ending, was actually a very appropriate and satisfying one;
- It’s peppered with Fremlin’s sharp and clever social and human insights in sufficient amounts to keep the brief lulls in plot action from being any lull in my interest level, which made reading this so enjoyable.

All told, it results in a definite top-tier Fremlin that, while close to 5 stars, I will rate as 4.3 stars rounded down to 4 stars and will reevaluate at the end of the year.

MY RATINGS FOR FREMLINS
(Instead of rating 4.5 or 3.5 stars I rate at 4.3, 3.7 and 3.3 stars for better rounding).

4.3 - The Long Shadow
4.3 - Dangerous Thoughts
4.3 – The Spider Orchid
4.3 – The Hours Before Dawn
4.3 – The Jealous One
4.0 - Prisoner’s Base
4.0 – The Trouble Makers
3.7 - Uncle Paul
3.7 – The Parasite Person
3.7 – With No Crying
3.7 – Ghostly Stories
3.3 – Seven Lean Years
3.3 – Listening in the Dusk
3.3 – Appointment With Yesterday

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can hardly believe I have nearly read all of Celia Fremlin's novels. This was her fourteenth novel, first published in 1991. As always, Fremlin's writing is so natural and so, so realistic. I can't think of another author who writes domestic thrillers as well and gets into the minds of her characters.

Clare Wakefield lives in London with journalist husband, Edwin and teenage son, Jason. Recently Edwin was kidnapped by terrorists in the Middle East, along with colleagues, Richard Barlow and Leonard Coburn. I think it is fair to say that Clare is not exactly too heartbroken about this and when she learns that Edwin has escaped his captors and is returning home, she is more resigned than euphoric. However, these events bring her into contact with Richard's mother, and his young wife, Sally and with Leonard's wife, Jessica.

As the situation changes, Clare begins to question Edwin's motives. Fremlin advances the novel slowly, bringing characters into contact until we have different alliances, allegiances and suspicions. This is one of Fremlin's best and shows me that, even as I do get to the end, there is so much more to discover and new favourites to find. If you like domestic thrillers, do not just look at new authors. Fremlin was deliciously dark and utterly herself.

[Pau Reh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanted to give this Book 3.5 instead of four stars because I was a bit annoyed, that all of the Moments of tension turned out to be harmless. But I thought about it for a Minute and recognized thats probably what the author was going for. The wife was so sure something terrible was going to happen and imagined a lot of bad scenarios and was Living in constant suspense and I was too. Even though eventually I already figured at some points that nothing was going to happen. But the Book is definetly worth 4 stars

[Boris Cesnik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delicious. Simply delicious.

One of her last novels, a savoury testimony of her wonderful talent for every day suspense stories where the horror is in simple and common details that in different hands would have read boring and innocuous. Here they are slowly unraveled to an almost anti-climactic ending that actually punches you right into your expectations. The painted everyday becomes an oxymoron in itself, every little thought, every small action - simple, usual but lethal.