“Fraser engages her readers quickly and never lets go” in this drama about a judge who tries to hide his sexual past by pursuing a suitable wife (Tatler Magazine).
The whispers begin when Leo Davies, charming, clever barrister in one of London’s most prestigious chambers, applies to take silk. Despite a life of seemingly unflawed social and professional brilliance, Leo has made a mistake: he is suspected of having a lurid and peculiar sexual past. With too many skeletons in his closet, Leo decides that in order to achieve the coveted position of Queen’s Council, the rumors must be scotched. And as desperate times call for desperate measures, he resolves to find a suitable woman and preferably marry her.
Thus begins a quest in which Leo, determined that his ambition will not be thwarted, sets out to woo and win the perfect, beautiful solicitor Rachael Dean. But Leo has taken on more than he bargained for: Rachael not only has a dazzling career in front of her, but also a dark and frightening past.
Leo’s tangled, sophisticated life, Rachael’s newly awakened passions, and the unrequited love of a bright young barrister, Anthony Cross, form the intricate cat’s cradle at the heart of this absorbing novel. Judicial Whispers is a tale of relationships, deceit and ambition in which Caro Fraser brings to life with uncanny accuracy the obsessions and delusions of people in love.
“Witty, polished . . . Rumpole, eat your heart out.” —She Magazine