Until It's Over

Until its Over is a gripping suspense story, one of excellent quality.

Astrid Bell, who works as a bicycle courier, lives in an old house in London with a disparate group of six housemates. Astrid seems to be trailed by a peculiar series of unrelated deaths. An elderly neighbor accidentally knocks her off her bicycle, and is murdered shortly thereafter. A few days later, Astrid is sent to pick up a package at a posh residence, and arrives to find the client dead – also murdered. The police increasingly focus on Astrid, but she is innocent. Suspicion and tensions divide the housemates, over the looming question of who could be doing these inexplicable crimes and for what possible motive. In an intriguing, literary device, once the show more perpetrator has been revealed, much of the story is retold from his/ her standpoint; the result is quite effective. The plot twists and suspense kept me on edge until the culprit was exposed, and entering this individual’s mind for the last ¼ of the book was a creepy experience. I high recommend this work, along with the other suspense novels written by this talented duo. show less

Another great thriller from Nicci French, perhaps not as taut as some of her earlier books but a good read. Bicycle courier Astrid Bell lives with six housemates in an old house in London. A neighbour is bludgeoned to death shortly after she accidentally knocks Astrid off her bicycle. A few days later, Astrid is sent to pick up a package from a home in a luxurious area of London and finds the client murdered. The only connection between the cases is Astrid and the police focus their enquiry on her and her flatmates exacerbating tensions among the group and creating a nice creepy psychological drama.

UNTIL IT’S OVER is written by Nicci French. Nicci French is the ‘pen name’ of English husband and wife writing team, Nicci Gerrard and Sean French. They specialize in the psychological thriller. My personal favorite is their Frieda Klein series.
In UNTIL IT’S OVER, a group of London housemates are pitted against each other as one of the housemates, Astrid Bell, is connected to three murder scenes. If Astrid didn’t commit the murders, who among them did?
I like the way the book is set up, with Part I identifying with Astrid - learning about her, her work and her connection (or lack of) to the murdered individuals. The house occupants and their relationships with each other are defined.
Part II is told from the perspective of the show more killer. IS it Astrid? One of the housemates? We don’t really know until the end.
UNTIL IT”S OVER is very tense, very suspenseful, very well-plotted. Some of the characters are more ‘fleshed-out’ than others and the police detectives investigating the case aren’t very well-developed (in my opinion).
I do like this writing team and especially the genre. **** show less

It was not as intense as their other books and I did not expect this to taper off midway. Thankfully it did picked up towards the end when the police found some connection elsewhere and slowly linked it back to who did it. As usual, it's well written with some suspense that kept me reading and feeling intrigued. I wouldn't have known who the killer was as I kept guessing it wrong. When it was revealed so early, I was like 'what???'!!! Spoilt all the fun!!! Oh well, we can't have it all right?

Thanks to Edelweiss for this e-book in return for my honest review.

Here is my full review:
http://www.sholee.net/2020/07/mpov-until-its-over-novel.html

I really enjoyed the first half of this novel but wasn't struck on the second half. Personal opinion. I enjoyed Astrid and her adventure and hated the way it broke off to follow another character and rather spoil the plot for me.

Still the novel was a best seller. It is well written, it's a good original plot and many people who aren't as picky as me will enjoy it.

It is always relaxing, a Nicci French thriller. Until it's over completely fulfilled my expectations. Exciting, unexpected denouement, not too many contingencies.

Seven people in their twenties,(I think) in one house. Living together and living their separate lives. In chapter 1, Astrid, a bike messenger, collides with the car door of a neighbor. The next morning this neighboring woman is dead. And that's not all...

In the first half of the book there are a number of suspects and you hope that some people do not walk away together, because who knows what can who wrong. In the second half of the book we see the story again, this time from the perspective of the murderer. Yes, after just over half the book we known who the murderer is. But show more the motives and consequences are well worked out.

A well written stry with sufficient depth and detailed characters. And sufficient exitement. Relaxing in a busy week.

http://boekenwijs.blogspot.com/2011/01/until-its-over.html show less

READ IN DUTCH

I've read most of the Nicci French novels as I always seem to get them as a Birthday present. I liked some of the earlier books, but lately they don't seem to be as good as they used to.
This one seems to be a bit moderate. I found the first part okay, but thought it to be a bit stupid to tell the exact story again from the killers view, this could have been simultaneously or maybe just a hole book in killers perspective. That would be a nice change from time to time. Anyway, this is not one of my favorites, not one of the worst I read by Nicci French either.