Tag: Nicci French

What Happened That Night by Nicci French

~ Veselin ~ Leave a comment

29 years ago, someone killed Leo. The murderer Taylor got convicted and stayed in jail for most of his life. He’s now out of jail under supervision. Out of the million things he could’ve done when out, he decided to gather a group of 10-ish friends in an Agatha Christie type event and tell them it was one of them who killed Leo. That wasn’t very smart of him and lead to another murder, for which he got immediately arrested.

I got strong Agatha Christie vibes, with clues dropped left and right, pointing in different directions. As it turns out, everyone’s business is dirty but not everyone is responsible for a murder. Will Maud O’Conner figure it out? Will you guess the murderer(s) before she does?

Nicci French writes the Maud O’Conner books in distinct parts. First part shows a terribly unfair event. Second part shows Maud O’Conner bringing justice. The first part in this book is clearly separated and about 100-150 pages long. This is actually better than the previous two books, where we had to suffer a lot longer to get to the point. I think the first part shouldn’t have been longer than 30-40 pages.

I gave the book 4/5 on Goodreads. It was quite good, after the first 100-150 pages, may even be my top pick for the month.

The Unheard by Nicci French: a Primal Fear Unlocked

~ Veselin ~ Leave a comment

What if your child suddenly started saying and doing disturbing things – words and actions no kid should know? As a parent, a primal fear kicks in: someone must have hurt them. But who? What if it’s someone from or close to the family?

That’s the terrifying premise behind Nicci French’s The Unheard.

The book follows Tess, a single mother sharing custody of her daughter with her ex. Life is already difficult, but when her child begins showing troubling signs, Tess spirals into suspicion and paranoia. She goes to the police, desperate for someone to believe her. Instead, she meets resistance, threats, and outright gaslighting from her ex, her friends, the authorities, even from me as a reader.

Tess is almost unbearable. She’s obsessive, frantic, annoying. Nothing she does makes sense. But maybe that’s the point. As readers, we’re pulled into her unstable perspective. We feel her isolation.

The duo behind Nicci French crafts a psychological thriller that pokes at deep-seated fears. It’s not a comfortable read. It’s not about who did it, even though we’ll be presented with a name. The book is about the atmosphere. That part is maybe 5⭐️/5.

3.5⭐️/5, I didn’t like it but will keep reading Nicci French.

The Day of the Dead by Nicci French

~ Veselin ~ Leave a comment

Frieda Klein is a great detective despite not being a detective. She’s like The Mentalist, and this final chapter of her series is her clash with Dean Reeve, the Red Jon of the series.

I think I liked this series more than The Mentalist. Frieda has no superpowers, other than maybe her ability to last for days with little to no sleep. The main antagonist is well-known, it’s clear who he is, how he hides, and so on. Doesn’t have the aura of mystical superhumanity that Red John has.

Book 8 of the series is calm and relatively short compared to the other books. The fall is coming, and people would be just like leaves. Except some of them who have the will to last.

5*/5, I liked the whole series very much. I regret that it ends after only 8 books.

Frieda Klein

~ Veselin ~ 3 Comments

I’m reading the series about Frieda Klein by Nicci French.

It’s a series of 8 books, 7 named after days of week, and one final. Frieda is a psychologist with a medical degree who always has a murder case to solve. She has the persistence of Harry Bosch and uses intuition and advanced questioning to untangle the ball of lies in each book.

The only downside of the series is that it has main antagonists who remain untouched over the series, like some kind of comic book supervillains.

I already finished the first 6 books of the series, having 2 left, and a few more with other protagonists. I gave 5*/5 to 5 of the 6 books and 4*/5 to one, which is pretty high for a series like that.