The Unheard

by Nicci French

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Fiction. Mystery. Thriller. HTML: "Nicci French is a specialist in the kind of evil that burrows from within." �??New York Times Book Review In this new heart-pounding standalone from the internationally bestselling author that People calls "razor sharp," a single mother suspects her young daughter has witnessed a horrible crime when the girl draws a disturbing picture�??but the deadly path to unravel the truth could cost her everything. Maybe Tess is overprotective, but passing her daughter off to her ex and his new young wife fills her with a sense of dread. It's not that Jason is a bad father�??it just hurts to see him enjoying married life with someone else. Still, she owes it to her daughter Poppy to make this arrangement work. But Poppy returns from the weekend tired and withdrawn. And when she shows Tess a crayon drawing�??an image so simple and violent that Tess can hardly make sense of it�??�??Poppy can only explain with the words, "He did kill her." Something is horribly wrong. Tess is certain Poppy saw something�??or something happened to her�??that she's too young to understand. Jason insists the weekend went off without a hitch. Doctors advise that Poppy may be reacting to her parents' separation. And as the days go on, even Poppy's disturbing memory seems to fade. But a mother knows her daughter, and Tess is determined to discover the truth. Her search will set off an explosive tempest of dark secrets and buried crimes�??and more than one… (more)

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Dragged on too long. Gave up about halfway through. (

)

carol6789 | Jan 19, 2022 |

"The Unheard" was my first Nicci French book. I felt Tess's fear of losing custody of her child. Ms. French accurately captured the way children speak and act at that age, which is refreshing. I love the moral of the story: little ears hear EVERYTHING. This is so true. Excellent book. (

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nab6215 | Jan 18, 2022 |

This is the first novel I have read from Nicci French. In this slow building suspense story, newly single Tess and her three year old daughter try and build a life on their own after Tess and her husband,Jason, separate. Tess has her own place, a job, a new completely comfortable boyfriend, and things seem to be going well. That is until Tess’s daughter draws a disturbing picture, and she starts acting out, peeing her bed at night, cursing, becoming violent with classmates. Unable to let it go, Tess vows to do anything she can to get to the bottom of poor Poppy’s bizarre behavior. In what seems to be straw grabbing, Tess draws a connection between Poppy’s drawing and the apparent suicide of a disturbed young woman named Skye Nolan. With little to go on, Tess vows to get to the bottom of this mystery, but the deeper she digs the less believable she becomes. This is a slow burn for me. All of the real action seemed to be concentrated in the last 50 or so pages. It was interesting enough to keep me reading to the end, and all the little plots twists are in the last few pages, but they were some good twists that I didn’t see coming. This is a story that begs the question just how far would you go to protect your child? Thank you to Netgalley for the copy in exchange for an honest review. (

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hana321 | Jan 10, 2022 |

Three year old Poppy can't always tell her mother what she means. But Tess becomes alarmed when she finds a disturbing drawing which Poppy tells her is a woman being killed. Poppy increases her sense of anxiety by asking her mother if she is dead. Tess at first thinks Poppy is telling her about something her father Jason, whom Poppy stays with a couple of times a week, has done. Until now both she and Jason think they have been handling their separation, and his new marriage, pretty well. Now Tess is anxious about who Poppy has been having contact with when she is not with Tess.

Poppy is showing clear signs of anxiety: wetting the bed, biting other children and so on. Now Tess does not know who she can trust, and she doesn't know who she should tell. She stalks Poppy's father and his new wife, and does not like what she finds out, things that were happening when they were together.

She tries to report things to the police, but, as they point out, there is no body, no evidence of a crime. By her 11th report they are threatening to take action, against her.

Nicci French has come up with a very believable scenario. (

)

smik | Dec 25, 2021 |

This was an easy read, but also a disappointing one. The main character, Tess, behaved in ways that made no sense to me (e.g. her constant visits to the astonishingly tolerant police). She also falls into that sub-genre, which I really need to create a Goodreads shelf for, of women who know some one has been in their home while they were out, but don't immediately get the locks changed. The plot made no sense to me - what was the story with the cap? - and required lots of mental leaps and unsubstantiated assumptions. Tess was unlikeable, although she had a staggering number of friends who constantly seemed to be having parties - those pre-Covid days...! I hope she got the sack from her teaching job, because she was forever falsely claiming to be sick.

I've talked myself down to 2* writing this. (

)

pgchuis | Nov 30, 2021 |

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Canonical title

The Unheard

Original title

Alternative titles

Original publication date

2021-04-06

People/Characters

Information from the Dutch Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.

Poppy

Tess

Jason

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Epigraph

Dedication

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Voor Patricia, de dappere.

First words

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Ze zeggen dat je niet kunt doodgaan in je dromen, maar vannacht voelde het toch alsof ik er geweest was.

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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

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▾Book descriptions

Fiction. Mystery. Thriller. HTML:

"Nicci French is a specialist in the kind of evil that burrows from within." �??New York Times Book Review

In this new heart-pounding standalone from the internationally bestselling author that People calls "razor sharp," a single mother suspects her young daughter has witnessed a horrible crime when the girl draws a disturbing picture�??but the deadly path to unravel the truth could cost her everything.

Maybe Tess is overprotective, but passing her daughter off to her ex and his new young wife fills her with a sense of dread. It's not that Jason is a bad father�??it just hurts to see him enjoying married life with someone else. Still, she owes it to her daughter Poppy to make this arrangement work.

But Poppy returns from the weekend tired and withdrawn. And when she shows Tess a crayon drawing�??an image so simple and violent that Tess can hardly make sense of it�??�??Poppy can only explain with the words, "He did kill her."

Something is horribly wrong. Tess is certain Poppy saw something�??or something happened to her�??that she's too young to understand. Jason insists the weekend went off without a hitch. Doctors advise that Poppy may be reacting to her parents' separation. And as the days go on, even Poppy's disturbing memory seems to fade. But a mother knows her daughter, and Tess is determined to discover the truth. Her search will set off an explosive tempest of dark secrets and buried crimes�??and more than one

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