The Red Room (2001)

"Nicci French" is, of course, a collaboration between husband-and-wife team Nicci Gerrard and Sean French, and this looks very much like writing by committee. It's well-enough put together but the whole thing seems to have crafted according to a publisher's template. There's lots of food and shopping - every item described in loving detail. There's the requisite bonk at about halfway; in the antepenultimate chapter the protagonist is in imminent danger of a messy demise but is saved in the nick of time; there are revelations and a gentle winding down. All straight out of the Ladybird Book of Writing Crime Fiction and a hundred-and-one stock series.

All very well, but I don't fit the marketing profile I'm afraid and I find the predictablity tiresome and frustrating. I want something that's going to shake me up, and this isn't my kind of thing.
( )

"Nicci French" is, of course, a collaboration between husband-and-wife team Nicci Gerrard and Sean French, and this looks very much like writing by committee. It's well-enough put together but the whole thing seems to have crafted according to a publisher's template. There's lots of food and shopping - every item described in loving detail. There's the requisite bonk at about halfway; in the antepenultimate chapter the protagonist is in imminent danger of a messy demise but is saved in the nick of time; there are revelations and a gentle winding down. All straight out of the Ladybird Book of Writing Crime Fiction and a hundred-and-one stock series.

All very well, but I don't fit the marketing profile I'm afraid and I find the predictablity tiresome and frustrating. I want something that's going to shake me up, and this isn't my kind of thing.
( )

READ IN DUTCH

What is your worst fear?



The red room refers to a psychological term. Inside the Red Room can be anything, but it will always be your biggest fear...

It seems like an interesting premise for any book.



Unfortunately this book focusses more on the actual investigation going on, where our main character is helping out. The story, however, is nothing special and that's a pity. It's still nice to read, but it could have been so much better... ( )

Per giallisti compulsivi, una storia del tutto solita, omicidi apparentemente slegati che in realtà fanno parte di un unico quadro, presunti colpevoli che in realtà non c’entrano nulla, Insomma, niente di nuovo sotto il sole, qualche passaggio dubbio (una psichiatra ha così tanto potere nella polizia? perché i londinesi vanno in vacanza a Cape Cod?) ma per il resto un buon prodotto artigianale da treno, ombrellone o dovunque si voglia far passare il tempo leggendo.

I loved this book! I ended up reading it in the same day because I couldn't stop. It is very well-written. ( )