Fear of Beauty Paperback - 2013

NOMINATED FOR THE 2014 MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD! 
NOMINATED FOR THE 2014 LOVE IS MURDER BEST SUSPENSE LOVEY

"An exceptionally well-written tale of love, loss, trust, and greed with appeal that reaches far beyond mystery fans." --Publishers Weekly 

"[A] great societal thriller …. Action-packed, readers will feel they are in Helmond Province as Sofi bravely searches for the truth with Mita and Joey enabling her. However, what makes Fear of Beauty one of the top novels of the year is the moral warning that extreme preservation of a culture’s tradition can result in perverting the fundamental belief system; whether it is American, Afghani or otherwise." --Mystery Gazette

"The bloodied body of a boy is found in a remote Afghan village, and his mother is desperate to understand her son's death. In this confrontational novel, she defies local men to search for answers and discovers how unchecked fundamentalism can corrode society." --Ms. Magazine 

"[T]his fictional woman halfway across the world isn't so different from you and me. Froetschel has great respect for the Afghan culture and deftly provides a slice-of-life tale that moves, informs and even surprises." --Shelf Awareness 

"For all the time that the United States has been at war in Afghanistan, it's rather surprising that we don't know more about how the people in small Afghan villages live.... Froetschel does a wonderful job of presenting both the US and Afghan views of a very complicated situation.... Fear of Beauty really excels at showing the personal side of life in an extremely challenging environment. " --Reviewing the Evidence 

"I would recommend this novel to any reader of murder mysteries as well as to anyone interested in women's rights, literacy and religion in the Middle East." --Murder Lab 

"Susan Froetschel makes the Afghanistan conflict real on a personal level, in a tale rich with thought-provoking themes. . . . Fear of Beauty is a wonderful novel." --Sandra Parshall, Agatha Award-winning author of Bleeding Through

"Froetschel is a superb storyteller. She brings the rugged beauty of Afghanistan, its simple folk, and its many dangers together in a spine-tingling tale." --Nayan Chanda, author of Bound Together

 

Susan Froetschel is the author of four previous novels--Fear of Beauty (named top mystery/suspense by the Military Writers Society of America and nominated for a Mary Higgins Clark Award), Alaska Gray, Interruptions, and Royal Escape. She has taught at Yale University and Southern Connecticut State University. She lives in Michigan and is currently an editor with YaleGlobal Online at Yale University's MacMillan Center for International Studies.