Nicci French
Author of Killing Me Softly
About the Author
Nicci French lives in Northern England. (Publisher Provided) Nicci French is the pseudonym used by husband-and-wife team Nicci Gerrard and Sean French, who write psychological thrillers together. Nicci Gerrard was born in Worcestershire, England on June 10, 1958. She received a first class honors show more degree in English literature from Oxford University. She taught English literature in Sheffield, London and Los Angeles before founding Women's Review, a magazine for women on art, literature and female issues. Later on, she worked at the New Statesman and is currently working at The Observer. Sean French was born in Bristol, England on May 28, 1959. He received a first class honors degree in English literature from Oxford University and became a journalist. In 1981 he won Vogue magazine's Writing Talent Contest and worked as their theatre critic from 1981 to 1986. During that time, he was also deputy literary editor and television critic at the Sunday Times, film critic for Marie Claire, and deputy editor of New Society. Before becoming a full-time author, he wrote write columns for the New Statesman. He has written both novels and non-fiction books. They were married in October 1990. In 1995, they started work on their first joint novel. The Memory Game was published in 1997 and was followed by numerous other works including The Safe House (1998), Killing Me Softly (1999), Beneath the Skin (2000), The Red Room (2001), Land of the Living (2002), Secret Smile (2003), Catch Me When I Fall (2005), Losing You (2006), Until It's Over (2008), What To Do When Someone Dies (2009), and Sunday Morning Coming Down (2017). (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Disambiguation Notice:
(nor) Nicci French is the pseudonym of London journalists, Nicci Gerrard and Sean French, who write psychological thrillers together. Please do not combine their separate LT entries.
(dut) Nicci French is the pseudonym of London journalists, Nicci Gerrard and Sean French, who write psychological thrillers together. Please do not combine their separate LT entries.
Nicci French is the pseudonym of London journalists, Nicci Gerrard and Sean French, who write psychological thrillers together. Please do not combine their separate LT entries.
And please do not combine the author "French" into this author name.
(ger) Nicci French ist das Pseudonym der Londoner Journalist*innen Nicci Gerrard und Sean French, die psychologische Kriminalromane zusammen schreiben. Bitte nicht mit den LT-Einzeleinträgen der beiden Autoren verknüpfen.
Image credit: Nicci French - Photo by Annemarieke van den Broek
Series
Works by Nicci French
Associated Works
Reader's Digest Condensed Books: Code to Zero • Winter Solstice • High Risk • Beneath the Skin (2000) — Author — 11 copies
Hebbes noire : elf smaakmakers voor de zomer — Foreword, some editions — 8 copies
Reader's Digest Select Editions: Bad Luck and Trouble | Silver Bay | Losing You | Treasure of Khan (2007) 5 copies
Hebbes 2 — Contributor — 4 copies
Australian Reader's Digest Select Editions: Even Steven • Decisive Measures • The Rescue • Beneath the Skin (2001) — Author — 4 copies
In eigen kring — Contributor — 2 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Gender
- n/a
- Awards and honors
- MAX Gouden Vleermuis Oeuvre Award (2024)
- Agent
- Joy Harris
- Nationality
- UK
- Map Location
- England, UK
- Disambiguation notice
- Nicci French is the pseudonym of London journalists, Nicci Gerrard and Sean French, who write psychological thrillers together. Please do not combine their separate LT entries.
And please do not combine the author "French" into this author name. - Associated Place (for map)
- UK
Members
Discussions
psychotic, sinister guy hangs girlfriend's brother in Name that Book (August 2012)
Reviews
By reading their stand alone mysteries I became a fan of husband and wife team, Nicci French, many years ago. More recently I have been introduced to their excellent series that features Dr. Frieda Klein, a psychotherapist who has assisted the police in a number of cases. In Thursday’s Child, the fourth instalment of the series, the story becomes much more personal to Frieda. She is asked to speak to the daughter of an old friend, and this daughter, Becky, revels that she has been raped in show more the exact same circumstances that Frieda herself experienced when she was sixteen. No one believed her at the time and no one is believing Becky either. When Becky turns up dead she is written off as a suicide but Frieda is certain she has been murdered and vows to find the perpetrator and see that justice is done.
Confronting her past in her abrupt and forceful way causes many of her old acquaintances to wonder what she is up to. Of course there is one who knows exactly what she is doing and plans to ensure that she isn’t successful. Meanwhile Frieda’s difficult relationship with her mother isn’t helped by the realization that her mother is dying from a brain tumor, or by the fact, that psychopath Dean Reeve is still taking an active interest in Frieda’s life.
Thursday’s Child is a chilling and disturbing mystery that is peopled with well-rounded characters, vivid descriptions and plenty of twists and turns. While Frieda herself remains annoying and cold, this book goes a long way to explaining why she is like that. For me, having Dean Reeve turn up again as judge and jury against Frieda’s enemies required me to let go of a certain amount of disbelief but overall Thursday’s Child is a good psychological mystery. show less
Confronting her past in her abrupt and forceful way causes many of her old acquaintances to wonder what she is up to. Of course there is one who knows exactly what she is doing and plans to ensure that she isn’t successful. Meanwhile Frieda’s difficult relationship with her mother isn’t helped by the realization that her mother is dying from a brain tumor, or by the fact, that psychopath Dean Reeve is still taking an active interest in Frieda’s life.
Thursday’s Child is a chilling and disturbing mystery that is peopled with well-rounded characters, vivid descriptions and plenty of twists and turns. While Frieda herself remains annoying and cold, this book goes a long way to explaining why she is like that. For me, having Dean Reeve turn up again as judge and jury against Frieda’s enemies required me to let go of a certain amount of disbelief but overall Thursday’s Child is a good psychological mystery. show less
Alec Salter is turning fifty, and his wife Charlotte has organized a birthday party for him, but to his daughter Etty’s surprise, she fails to show up on time. As the hours pass, Etty grows more anxious, and she finally calls the police. They seem unconcerned. Surely she’s just taking some time away. But as the hours and days pass, it’s clear to Etty something has happened to her.
Soon there’s another tragedy in the village. Etty and her friend Greg go to pull his father’s boat up show more above the tide line but are startled to find something floating in the water: Greg’s father Duncan has drowned. The police make little progress finding the missing woman and conclude Duncan killed her and then himself in a fit of remorse. Etty isn’t persuaded, and in addition to missing her father, she dreads being alone with her father as her older siblings
Thirty years later, the children return to their home to deal with their elderly father whose dementia has reached a point where he needs to be moved into a care home. For Etty, who has overcome years of self-destructive behavior to become a hard-nosed attorney in London, she just wants to get it over with. Being with her remaining brothers (one committed suicide years earlier) brings back bitter memories.
So does a project undertaken by Duncan’s sons, one of whom has become a well-known documentarian. With his brother, he starts a podcast about Charlotte’s disappearance and his father’s death, interviewing people in the town, unearthing secrets as his episodes go viral, but making Etty think the truth is being obscured as her family’s history is transformed into a performance.
After Etty hires an eccentric woman who makes a living clearing out houses (she calls herself “a curator of a museum of lost happiness”) more secrets surface and another murder brings a London detective in to conduct a new investigation into crimes the local police have botched.
This is an absorbing character-driven novel that starts slowly – too slowly – but picks up momentum, especially when the London detective comes to take over the case. Etty’s evolution as she adjusts over time is moving, and the siblings’ relationships are complex and realistically troubled. More minor characters are also, for the most part, vividly drawn, though the ultimate conclusion to the investigation leaves some questions of motivation underdeveloped. All that said, it’s well worth a read, and is likely to appeal to fans of Jane Harper who don’t mind letting pace take a back seat to the development of complex relationships. show less
Soon there’s another tragedy in the village. Etty and her friend Greg go to pull his father’s boat up show more above the tide line but are startled to find something floating in the water: Greg’s father Duncan has drowned. The police make little progress finding the missing woman and conclude Duncan killed her and then himself in a fit of remorse. Etty isn’t persuaded, and in addition to missing her father, she dreads being alone with her father as her older siblings
Thirty years later, the children return to their home to deal with their elderly father whose dementia has reached a point where he needs to be moved into a care home. For Etty, who has overcome years of self-destructive behavior to become a hard-nosed attorney in London, she just wants to get it over with. Being with her remaining brothers (one committed suicide years earlier) brings back bitter memories.
So does a project undertaken by Duncan’s sons, one of whom has become a well-known documentarian. With his brother, he starts a podcast about Charlotte’s disappearance and his father’s death, interviewing people in the town, unearthing secrets as his episodes go viral, but making Etty think the truth is being obscured as her family’s history is transformed into a performance.
After Etty hires an eccentric woman who makes a living clearing out houses (she calls herself “a curator of a museum of lost happiness”) more secrets surface and another murder brings a London detective in to conduct a new investigation into crimes the local police have botched.
This is an absorbing character-driven novel that starts slowly – too slowly – but picks up momentum, especially when the London detective comes to take over the case. Etty’s evolution as she adjusts over time is moving, and the siblings’ relationships are complex and realistically troubled. More minor characters are also, for the most part, vividly drawn, though the ultimate conclusion to the investigation leaves some questions of motivation underdeveloped. All that said, it’s well worth a read, and is likely to appeal to fans of Jane Harper who don’t mind letting pace take a back seat to the development of complex relationships. show less
The Last Days of Kira Mullan: A Chilling Murder Mystery with Shocking Plot Twists, Get Hooked Now! by Nicci French
Nancy North has recently been discharged from a psychiatric ward following a psychotic episode — voices, a complete unraveling, the full frightening experience of not being able to trust her own mind. She and her boyfriend Felix are moving to a new flat in Harlesden, north London, for a fresh start. Nancy is fine now. She's taking her medication, doing her breathing exercises, managing carefully. What she could do without is Felix's hovering concern, and the fact that he seems to have show more pre-warned the neighbors about her history before she even got to introduce herself.
Within days of moving in, the young woman in the basement flat is found hanging from a beam. Her name is Kira Mullan. The police quickly determine it was suicide and the case is essentially closed before it starts. But Nancy had a brief encounter with Kira the day before she died — a woman in striking green boots with yellow laces, visibly upset and angry, who said something to Nancy that didn't quite make sense. And to Nancy's eye, Kira was not suicidal. Distressed, yes. Frightened, possibly. But not that. The problem is that Nancy is the only one who thinks so, and everyone around her — Felix, the neighbors, the police — looks at her with eyes that say: you can't trust yourself. They're not entirely wrong that she had a brief episode around the time of the encounter, which Felix immediately weaponizes. Meanwhile, Detective Inspector Maud O'Connor — from the previous Nicci French novel Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter? — has her own quiet misgivings about her colleagues' hasty conclusions. She knows what it looks like when a woman's account is dismissed because she's deemed inconvenient. Second in the Maud O'Connor series, readable as a standalone.
[May contain spoilers]
Nancy's determination to be heard has devastating consequences — the gaslighting from all directions, including from Felix and the neighbors, escalates to a point where she is re-institutionalized, her credibility weaponized against her. Maud eventually takes Nancy's account seriously and the investigation reopens. Kira's death was indeed murder, and the community's eagerness to close the case quickly is connected to who had reasons to want it closed. Felix's "concern" is darker than it initially appears. The ending delivers justice but at real cost to Nancy.
What I think: This is Nicci French doing what they do best — atmospheric British psychological thriller with a woman-not-believed-at-the-center structure that generates genuine, productive rage. The gaslighting is rendered with forensic precision. Nancy is a deeply compelling protagonist specifically because the reader shares her uncertainty about her own reliability. Maud is a fantastic detective — smart, sardonic, politically aware within her institution. Right in the territory of Her Last Breath and She Didn't See It Coming. Probably a strong 4 to 4.5 from you. show less
Within days of moving in, the young woman in the basement flat is found hanging from a beam. Her name is Kira Mullan. The police quickly determine it was suicide and the case is essentially closed before it starts. But Nancy had a brief encounter with Kira the day before she died — a woman in striking green boots with yellow laces, visibly upset and angry, who said something to Nancy that didn't quite make sense. And to Nancy's eye, Kira was not suicidal. Distressed, yes. Frightened, possibly. But not that. The problem is that Nancy is the only one who thinks so, and everyone around her — Felix, the neighbors, the police — looks at her with eyes that say: you can't trust yourself. They're not entirely wrong that she had a brief episode around the time of the encounter, which Felix immediately weaponizes. Meanwhile, Detective Inspector Maud O'Connor — from the previous Nicci French novel Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter? — has her own quiet misgivings about her colleagues' hasty conclusions. She knows what it looks like when a woman's account is dismissed because she's deemed inconvenient. Second in the Maud O'Connor series, readable as a standalone.
[May contain spoilers]
Nancy's determination to be heard has devastating consequences — the gaslighting from all directions, including from Felix and the neighbors, escalates to a point where she is re-institutionalized, her credibility weaponized against her. Maud eventually takes Nancy's account seriously and the investigation reopens. Kira's death was indeed murder, and the community's eagerness to close the case quickly is connected to who had reasons to want it closed. Felix's "concern" is darker than it initially appears. The ending delivers justice but at real cost to Nancy.
What I think: This is Nicci French doing what they do best — atmospheric British psychological thriller with a woman-not-believed-at-the-center structure that generates genuine, productive rage. The gaslighting is rendered with forensic precision. Nancy is a deeply compelling protagonist specifically because the reader shares her uncertainty about her own reliability. Maud is a fantastic detective — smart, sardonic, politically aware within her institution. Right in the territory of Her Last Breath and She Didn't See It Coming. Probably a strong 4 to 4.5 from you. show less
The fourth book by Nicci French (the pseudonym for husband and wife team Nicci Gerard and Sean French) to feature Frieda Klein forces the enigmatic psychotherapist to confront the demons of her own past when an old classmate begs her to help her troubled daughter.
“Don’t think of telling anyone sweetheart. Nobody will believe you.”
When fifteen year old Becky reveals she was raped in her own bed, Frieda is stunned by the similarities to her own experience as a teenager, twenty three show more years before. Compelled to investigate the link, Frieda returns to her hometown of Braxton where she reconnects with her both her estranged mother, and her high school peer group in search of answers.
Thursday’s Children is another enjoyable psychological thriller offering plenty of drama and intrigue as Frieda tracks down a murderous rapist who has evaded detection for more than two decades.
The setting of Thursday’s Children is also an opportunity for the author to expose the roots of Frieda’s cold and reserved demeanour, often remarked upon by readers. When Frieda returns to Braxton she reluctantly visits her mother, and her interaction with the woman who raised her provides important insight into the psychotherapist’s personality.
“‘There are things I’ve run away from all my life. My father’s death. My rape. Things that happened after. But it seems as though I’ve run in a perfect circle and I’m back with it again. In the thick of it.'”
While Freida grapples with her past, her loyal friends, Josef, Reuben, and Karlsson among them, rally to support her, even though Frieda is as always determinated to go it alone. The only element of the storyline that had me puzzled was Frieda’s seemingly sudden rejection of Sandy, I could guess at the psychology of it but it was rather abrupt and I still can’t quite make sense of it.
Unsurprisingly, in the background of Thursday’s Children, lurks Dean Reeve, the murderous sociopath obsessed with Frieda. He is never far from Freida’s awareness and as the series is at the midway point, a final confrontation between the pair approaches.
I couldn’t recommend Thursday’s Child as a stand alone read but for fans of the Frieda Klein series, it is an unmissable installment. I’m excited to move straight on to book 5, Friday On My Mind. show less
“Don’t think of telling anyone sweetheart. Nobody will believe you.”
When fifteen year old Becky reveals she was raped in her own bed, Frieda is stunned by the similarities to her own experience as a teenager, twenty three show more years before. Compelled to investigate the link, Frieda returns to her hometown of Braxton where she reconnects with her both her estranged mother, and her high school peer group in search of answers.
Thursday’s Children is another enjoyable psychological thriller offering plenty of drama and intrigue as Frieda tracks down a murderous rapist who has evaded detection for more than two decades.
The setting of Thursday’s Children is also an opportunity for the author to expose the roots of Frieda’s cold and reserved demeanour, often remarked upon by readers. When Frieda returns to Braxton she reluctantly visits her mother, and her interaction with the woman who raised her provides important insight into the psychotherapist’s personality.
“‘There are things I’ve run away from all my life. My father’s death. My rape. Things that happened after. But it seems as though I’ve run in a perfect circle and I’m back with it again. In the thick of it.'”
While Freida grapples with her past, her loyal friends, Josef, Reuben, and Karlsson among them, rally to support her, even though Frieda is as always determinated to go it alone. The only element of the storyline that had me puzzled was Frieda’s seemingly sudden rejection of Sandy, I could guess at the psychology of it but it was rather abrupt and I still can’t quite make sense of it.
Unsurprisingly, in the background of Thursday’s Children, lurks Dean Reeve, the murderous sociopath obsessed with Frieda. He is never far from Freida’s awareness and as the series is at the midway point, a final confrontation between the pair approaches.
I couldn’t recommend Thursday’s Child as a stand alone read but for fans of the Frieda Klein series, it is an unmissable installment. I’m excited to move straight on to book 5, Friday On My Mind. show less
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