They’re probably best known as authors of the best sell Frieda Klein series but Nicci Gerrard and Sean French besides create some grip and original standalone works excessively. The Unheard is the latest in a list that includes the likes of House of Correction and The Lying Room, both reviewed on this site .There ’ randomness constantly that psychological thriller element in the Nicci French books, and The Unheard is no exception. Tess is a unmarried mother be in London with her three-year-old daughter, Poppy. She and the child ’ mho founder have separated, although they have a friendly enough kinship in which small Poppy is the glue that still binds them .
But that is all about to change on one black day when Poppy comes home from nursery clutching her common array of colorful drawings, chiefly of mummy and Sunny, their beloved big cat. As Tess idly leafs through the latest batch of masterpieces she is brought up short — in among all the rainbow scribble is a very different draw. It is in blunt black and whiten and depicts what looks like a loom and a barbarian hairy charwoman falling from it .
When she gently quizzes her daughter – is it Rapunzel ? An angel ? A fagot ? poppy ’ mho answer is chilling. “ He did kill her, ” she says. “ He did kill and kill and kill. ” The incident is followed by Poppy on the spur of the moment not sleeping well, wetting the bed, and loudly shouting curse words in wrath. Where has the fresh little daughter gone – and what has triggered this dramatic change in her ?
watch in horror as doting earth beget Tess turns into a raging out of restraint lioness. She is convinced that Poppy witnessed something atrocious. When she learns that a young local anesthetic charwoman recently fell to her death from a tall build, she puts two and two together and comes up with a pathetic hypothesis that Poppy was somehow involved. But it is in truth absurd ? When the local wallpaper publishes a photograph of the dead woman, Tess realises she knows her. It ’ s the strange woman who came and accosted her and her boyfriend recently when they were out for a quixotic dinner together .
ti starts bombarding the patrol with theories, and her shotgun approach of suspecting everyone she knows starts to alienate her from the people she thought she knew. Her paranoia deepens and she goes off half-cocked and without any verse or reason for her suspicions .
The Unheard is a densely written novel, its protagonist reasonably hard to like and her growing near-madness unmanageable to empathise with. When Tess ’ s maternally beloved tips over into such a whirlpool of emotions it credibly best to take time time out, stand back and breathe deeply before continuing your learn – as I found myself doing on numerous occasions, muttering under my breath at what I ’ d merely witnessed on the page. This is not a book that pulls in the reader like a welcome hug ; rather, there ’ s a sensation of being on the outside, looking in and not liking what you ’ re see.
tellurium reminded me of Rachel in The Girl on the Train – person you wanted to grab by the shoulders and give a bally good talking to. But, like Rachel, possibly there is something to her paranoia after all ? The Nicci French team may make heavy exploit of this one, but ultimately, they still manage to surprise and shock .
however, this standalone won ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate be added to my number of darling reads of 2021 and Tess surely isn ’ t on my Christmas tease list, but thankfully there are enough pluses in there to keep psychological thriller fans concerned to the final page.
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Simon & Schuster
Print/Kindle/iBook
£8.99
CFL Rating: 3 Stars
