Land of the Living Abbie Deveraux wakes up to find herself in the dark, bound and hooded, and unable to think clearly. Her captor ruthlessly relates what has happened to his previous victims, but he is no hurry to finish the job. Abbie finally manages to escape, only to find that no one believes her story.
In addition to her inability to convince the police about what happened, Abbie can't remember much of the time leading up to her capture. She begins interviewing her friends about the days immediately preceding her captivity, trying to reconstruct what led to her horrifying experience with a psychopath.
Realistic? Well, no. Compelling and suspenseful? Oh, yes.
Library copy. Read in Dec.
Suspense/Mystery. 2003. 432 pages.
The Red Room
Kit Quinn is a clinical psychologist who is asked to evaluate Michael Doll, but during the evaluation, Doll becomes extremely agitated and ends up slashing Kit's face.
Later, Doll is arrested as a suspect in the murder of a young woman, and a reluctant Kit is again called in. Despite her unease about the disturbed Michael Doll, Kit isn't sure that he is guilty of the murder. The relationship between the police is pretty antagonistic, but Kit believes the murder of the young run-away may be connected to two previous murders.
This novel may be part of the inspiration for the husband and wife writing team known as Nicci French to develop their more recent Frieda Klein series (Blue Monday, Tuesday's Gone, Waiting for Wednesday).
I wasn't entralled with The Red Room for several reasons, but I have enjoyed the three books I've read in the Frieda Klein series.
Library copy. Read in Jan.
Suspense/Mystery. 2001. 384 pages.
So these are standalones. Think I'll wait a bit to read them. Still need to read the 2 Frieda books that are in my TBR pile. It's interesting that they started out writing standalones and then turned to a series. Seems to me that it works the other way around most often. Thanks for your thoughts!
ReplyDeleteThe Frieda Klein series is relatively new, but I like the series. I'm eager for the new "Thursday" book.
DeleteThese both sounds crazy suspenseful. :-) It's a shame you didn't like The Red Room as much as you'd expected to.
ReplyDeleteI felt it harder to connect to the characters in The Red Room, but I wasn't all that fond of the plot either for some reason. It was OK, but didn't especially appeal to me.
DeleteI'm not sure why, but lately I find myself turning away from books that involve captivity of some sort. I haven't read anything by this husband/wife team. I had one of their earlier books years ago in my TBR collection, but ended up giving it away at some point unread. I do want to give them a try someday.
ReplyDeleteI think I like the Frieda Klein series better than the stand alones, and the captivity issue makes me uncomfortable, too. Fortunately, most of the book dealt with Abbie's attempts to convince others that her story was real and find the bad guy.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read Nicci French for a long while; their books are either a hit or miss to me. These two books sound compelling, though.
ReplyDeleteThey are kind of hit or miss for me, too. Neither of these are among my favorites, but I liked Land of the Living better.
DeleteI've enjoyed several French books but it's been a while since I've read one. I would like to check out the Klein series though.
ReplyDeleteThe books by the French team can be pretty dark, but I've enjoyed several of them. I like that they've found a character that they like well enough to build a series around. Do check out the Frieda Klein series and see what you think.
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