THE UNHEARD by Nicci French
I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org and Libro.fm, online retailers that support independent booksellers. If you make a purchase by clicking through the links in this post, I will receive a commission. For more information, see my “About” page.
I received an Advance Reader Copy of this book from the publisher in order to write this review.
Tess and her ex have been effective co-parents since they split. He is happily married, and Tess is content in her relationship with Aidan, even if she’s not comfortable letting him spend the night yet. (At least not when her three-year-old daughter is home.) But when Poppy comes home from her dad’s house with a drawing of a woman being pushed out a window–and the cryptic message “he did kill and kill and kill”–Tess begins to fear that she witnessed something terrible. The police dismiss her as paranoid, but when a woman that Tess met at a cafe who claimed to know her (and Poppy) is murdered in the exact manner of her daughter’s drawing, Tess is certain that it must be connected. And if the murderer is someone that Poppy knows, then all of the men in Tess’ life are suspects–and she and Poppy are in very real danger.
Fans of psychological suspense won’t want to miss this mystery with a possibly-crazy narrator and an edge-of-your-seat climax. The protagonist gives us every reason to mistrust her judgment–and yet as we know there’s a murderer on the loose (and we are reading a thriller), we are left to calm our own anxieties over whether one of her many male acquaintances is truly a villain, or whether her obsession is blinding her to another lurking danger. Another triumph for Nicci French, and an excellent addition to any collection of adult mysteries and thrillers.
Susan the Librarian 