THE family of Arlene Fraser, the murdered mother-of-two, have dismissed as "insulting rubbish" a book purporting to tell the real story of her disappearance.

They told yesterday how they felt duty-bound to defend her name which has been maligned at a particularly sensitive time for them, the seventh anniversary of her death.

Mrs Fraser, 33, was last seen on April 28, 1998, waving off to school her two children, Jamie, then 10 and Natalie, then five.

Since then, no trace of her has been found but her estranged husband, Nat, who five weeks before her disappearance tried to strangle her, is now serving a life sentence for her murder. He will serve a minimum of 25 years.

He was charged, along with two friends, Glenn Lucas and Hector Dick, with murdering her.

During the trial, the charges against Mr Lucas and Mr Dick were dropped, with the latter turning Queen's evidence. He told the jury Fraser told him he had hired a contract killer who strangled his wife, her body lay hidden near her home for two weeks, and then Fraser himself had burned her body, ground down her bones, including her teeth, and scattered her remains in the Moray countryside.

Murdered or Missing? The Arlene Fraser Case is written by Mr Lucas and

Reg McKay, a crime writer, and now that several members of Mrs Fraser's family have had the opportunity to read it, they have decided to respond. Last night, they told The Herald it was inaccurate in many ways.

"Glenn Lucas's portrayal of Arlene is both misleading and insulting, " they said. "This book is supposedly about Arlene, yet no attempt was made by either Black & White Publishing, Glenn Lucas, or Reg McKay to seek permission from Arlene's parents to publish material about their daughter.

"Anyone reading this rubbish will have an extremely distorted view of Arlene's character . . .

Lucas claims Arlene may still be alive, however he continues throughout the book to malign her character. It is obvious that he feels safe in the knowledge that she cannot come forward to defend herself because you can libel the dead but not the living, without fear of legal proceedings.

"It is now incumbent upon her family to speak on her behalf. Nat Fraser on the other hand is paving the way for the school bullies to taunt and ridicule Jamie and Natalie with his sordid remarks about their mother.

"We are disappointed that a tabloid newspaper serialised this book, despite requests from members of the family not to do so . . . We were told there was public interest in the 'story' and a commercial decision had already been made to run it. Again, we see another party profiting from Arlene's demise. Headlines claimed 'incredible new evidence' was to be revealed, but it was just old news rehashed.

"Of course, pages had to be filled and the book had to be sensationally padded out with lies about drugs, parties and sex all portrayed in crude language.

"Immediately after the trial, Glenn Lucas stated publicly in a national newspaper that Nat Fraser was a great actor and should receive an Oscar for his performance. 'He fooled everyone including me', stated Lucas.

"So why has Lucas changed course and decided to write this book? Lucas would be better served in persuading his friend Nat to tell his children where their mother's remains lie, or at least tell us. This would make such a difference to so many lives.

"Nat Fraser stood in the High Court under oath and sobbed that he realised Arlene was dead. Yet Lucas claims in his book that Arlene may be lying on a beach in Northern Cyprus. If this is the case, why does he not travel to there and bring her back and get his friend out of jail?

"Finally, Lucas claims that we accepted the verdict too easily. Perhaps if Lucas had stayed in court to hear all the evidence, he would realise just why we accepted the verdict."

Last week, several members of her family travelled to Elgin to remember Mrs Fraser quietly. A book signing planned by Mr Lucas and Mr McKay forW H Smith in Elgin was scrapped after the shop received complaints from members of the public that it was in bad taste.