Books
by Nicci French
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Complicit |
Differently constructed when compared with the previous ones, this new Nicci French is certainly up to standard. Bonnie, who tells the story, is a music teacher who has to form a band to play at a wedding. She falls in love with one of the musicians, the summer is hot, friendships between band members unravel, passions turn murderous, everyone lies and no one is prepared to tell the truth to uncover a murderer. Very good.
(Kathie Somerwil Ayrton - bwl 56 Spring 2010) |
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Killing Me Softly |
Alice Loudon is well-adjusted, has good friends, wonderful career, loving boyfriend. One day she meets a stranger on the street and is hooked, literally and figuratively. Although some of this is not really new, the description of the strong sexual relationship is done with reticence and taste and shows, quite clinically but without the psychologist's jargon, how much easier it must be than we think to become obsessed with someone and an easy prey.
(Kathie Somerwil Ayrton - bwl 15 October 2002) |
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Land of the Living |
Again Nicci French takes situations which have been 'done' before and gives them a new and quite horrifying twist. Abbie Devereaux has been abducted and it is obvious that her captor is going to kill her. She has also lost her memory. To keep sane, to escape, to try to regain her memory and her old life is what keeps Abbie, a girl of strength and spirit, going.
(Kathie Somerwil Ayrton - bwl 16 December 2002) |
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Land of the Living |
If you cannot imagine yourself kidnapped, in the dark, memory lost, no one to help, no one believing your story, try Land of the Living, by 'Nicci' and ' French'. Extraordinary welding of plot and style by two (!) authors, and an amazing synthesis of emotional perception. The suspense holds and builds to a powerful, chilling and, unusually for this type of literature, satisfactory conclusion. Excellent read for escape, holiday, etc.
(Kathie Somerwil Ayrton - bwl 23 April 2004) |
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Saturday Requiem |
Sixth in the series of the husband/wife team Nicci French about Frieda Klein, psychotherapist compelled to solve old crimes, this is even better than the others, very strong and gripping. Hannah, an eighteen-year-old girl, is arrested for the brutal murder of her family and is in a mental hospital; thirteen years later there is doubt and Frieda is asked to assess her. Someone is hiding the truth and someone else is stalking Frieda . . . a compelling read.
(Kathie Somerwil Ayrton - bwl 80 Spring 2016) |
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The Red Room |
In this novel the narrator is a young psychiatrist who is called in by the police in connection with their enquiries into the murder of a young woman in London. Her job is to help strengthen their case against the man they suspect to be the killer. Needless to say she doesn't share their conclusion and thereby hangs the development of the story. I enjoyed this original approach for a detective story.
(Jeremy Swann - bwl 40 June 2007) |
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Until it's Over |
A series of coincidences dogs London cycle-courier Astrid Bell, all seemingly unconnected except for her presence, so that when in the course of her job she arrives to collect a package and discovers a dead body, for the police it is more than coincidence. Astrid lives with six others in a peaceful community which falls apart when faced with murder. Another suspenseful, psychologically believable and well-structured book, up to the French high standard.
(Kathie Somerwil Ayrton - bwl 42 October 2007) |
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