โ Scribed by Nicci French
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
Long before the diagnosis is pronounced, readers will recognize that 27-year-old London executive Holly Krauss, the heroine of French's disappointing new novel (after 2004's Secret Smile), is suffering from bipolar disorder, though Holly's manic side is much more pronounced than the depressive. A drinking binge one evening leads to a sordid one-night-stand with disastrous consequencesRees, the man she sleeps with, begins to threaten her. Meanwhile, Holly's relationship with her business partner and best friend, Meg, is in peril, as is her marriage. During another drunken evening, she loses thousands of pounds in a poker game to a loan shark. Such self-destructive behavior (most notably her poor impulse control) undermines the sense of danger. Of course, a crime lurks at the story's heart (Holly isn't entirely paranoid), but the muddled plot and unsympathetic heroine make this suspense thriller less satisfying than others by French (the pseudonym of journalists Sean French and Nicci Gerrard).
Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
French has turned out four suspenseful stand-alone thrillers (Secret Smile, 2004), but the latest is a misstep. The previous efforts have featured likable, engaging heroines, but the protagonist this time, Holly Krauss, is a whiny, odd character for whom it's difficult to generate much sympathy. The premise is that Londoner Holly is starting to do crazy things and lose control of her life. Her long-suffering husband, Charlie, seems oblivious to most of it. From having sex with a strange man to losing thousands at poker, Holly has thrown caution to the wind, and her world is about to come crashing down. Is she going crazy, and if so, why? As family and friends try to save her, Holly struggles with herself yet can't seem to stop her path of self--destruction. Readers will easily figure out a couple of plot twists, and the ending fails to deliver the kind of shocking surprise one expects from French. Still, French is a master at generating suspense, and that alone is enough to make this one worth reading, despite the flimsy premise and unlikable star. Jenny McLarin
Copyright American Library Association. All rights reserved
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