Seven Lean Years

*Seven Lean Years *(1961) was Celia Fremlin's third novel of suspense. Its protagonist is Ellen Fortescue, engaged to be married, but oddly uneasy about her approaching wedding. Her fiance Leonard is a man of varying moods, most combustibly where the subject of his stepmother Laura is concerned. Ellen is inclined to a kinder view; but then the woman Ellen calls 'Cousin Laura' does have a complicated history with the Fortescue family...

'Fremlin wraps up her little mystery cunningly in this accomplished thriller-chiller of a book.' *Sunday Times*

* * 'Fremlin has a quite extraordinary ability for imbuing the normal with intimations of doom-to-come. And when she begins to develop her elegantly horrible climax, the shivers chase each other down one's spine.'*Birmingham Post*

* * 'Celia Fremlin is about our best hope to compete with the American intelligent superior suspense school.'*Observer*