Astrid Bell has known most of her housemates for years, but while they have a tangled history together—romantic pairings, one-night stands, friendships—each of them also has a past.
Astrid is on her way home one day when her neighbor accidentally knocks her off her bike. Bruised but not broken, her roommates help her home. The next day, they learn that same neighbor was beaten to death only hours after the accident. Each of them tells the police what little they know and are dismissed—until Astrid stumbles over another body. Two brutal murders in less than a week is more than just bad luck.
As the difference between friend and stranger grows harder to judge, and as the line between attraction and danger thins, the housemates—unsure if there’s a killer in their midst—guard against becoming his next victim in this steamy and suspenseful thriller from internationally bestselling author Nicci French.
From Booklist
Here’s another psychological thriller from the popular author of Land of the Living (2003) and Losing You(2008), among many others. Astrid Bell is a bike messenger in London. Not long after a neighbor knocks Astrid off her bike with the poorly timed opening of a car door, the neighbor is found dead. Astrid and her roommates are interviewed by the police—Astrid, in particular, is grilled several times. She can’t help feeling the police think she’s somehow involved in the murder, and when, shortly thereafter, she stumbles on another dead body, she’s sure there has to be something more than coincidence at work. Novels by Nicci French—the pseudonym of the husband-and-wife team of Nicci Gerard and Sean French—promise three things: engaging characters, an intricate story, and a sultry atmosphere. This one delivers all three, in spades. --David Pitt
Review
Praise for Nicci French and *Losing You
_“Lose yourself in this smart nail-biter of a tale about a mother’s desperate search for her missing teenage daughter.”
—_People
_“Seamless first-person account. . . . This engrossing read captures the importance of the often overlooked and underappreciated minutiae of everyday life while commanding a deeply personal reaction in readers.”
—_Publishers Weekly* (starred review)
“The novel’s greatest strength is its cool-eyed portrait of an English village.”
— The Washington Post
“What gives Losing You its chief distinction . . . is its unusually emotive color and its flinty protagonist, who, like any mother, understands that no one can possibly care as much about her child as she does. Nina is the parent we’d all like to be under duress, and I find I’ve become nearly as protective of her as she is of her daughter.”
— Salon
“Nicci French . . . know[s] exactly how to maintain the tension . . . You live through every nail-biting minute.”
— The Guardian(London)
“This latest offering is sure to keep readers furiously flipping pages through the night.”
— Booklist