Book Review: THE UNHEARD by Nicci French

 

Title: THE UNHEARD

Author:  Nicci French

Read: October 2021

Expected publication: out now

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟1/2

 

Book Description:

 

Maybe Tess is overprotective, but passing her daughter off to her ex and his new young wife fills her with a sense of dread. It's not that Jason is a bad father--it just hurts to see him enjoying married life with someone else. Still, she owes it to her daughter Poppy to make this arrangement work.

But Poppy returns from the weekend tired and withdrawn. And when she shows Tess a crayon drawing--an image so simple and violent that Tess can hardly make sense of it----Poppy can only explain with the words, "He did kill her."

Something is horribly wrong. Tess is certain Poppy saw something--or something happened to her--that she's too young to understand. Jason insists the weekend went off without a hitch. Doctors advise that Poppy may be reacting to her parents' separation. And as the days go on, even Poppy's disturbing memory seems to fade. But a mother knows her daughter, and Tess is determined to discover the truth. Her search will set off an explosive tempest of dark secrets and buried crimes--and more than one life may be at stake.

 

My musings:

 

“What makes a good psychological thriller?” a friend asked me recently. “Mmh, let me see ..... It has to mess with my mind. An unreliable narrator where you’re never sure if they’re just imagining the threat or whether it’s real. People connected to the main protagonist who may or may not be a threat, but each one of them is suspicious, and the ones that aren’t suspicious are even more likely to be dangerous. A situation that’s so mundane and everyday that it could happen to you and me, but which escalates quickly into a simmering sense of dread. And no one around you believes that the threat is real.” I could have cut a long story short and summed it up in two words: Nicci French.

 

There is a reason why this author duo is high up on my list of favourites, and THE UNHEARD was a perfect example. If you think that a child’s drawing is no trigger to become paranoid, then I urge you to reconsider. When little Poppy, usually a happy, outgoing three year old, suddenly starts exhibiting some disturbing behaviours and draws the picture of a woman plunging to her death from a tower, her mother is rightly concerned.

 

French write in such a way that it felt as if I was sitting opposite Tess in a cafe, sipping a latte and listening wide eyed to her account of things. “What No way!” At times, I even talked to her in my head: “Yes, just do it!” Or: “No, don’t Tess!” To say I was way too emotionally involved in this story is an understatement. Perhaps because I could not help but put myself in Tess’ shoes: what if this had happened with my own three year old? What if I suddenly couldn’t trust anyone around me any more? What if I had no control over who my child is exposed to whilst in the care of her father? And worst of all, what if everyone thought that I was just crazy to be concerned ....

 

Even though Tess did take things to a whole new level, I was always firmly in her court (cringing at times, but still). My heart ached for her as she had to drop Poppy off at her ex-partner’s house, knowing that she may not be safe there. Questioning all her relationships, even with her new partner and her best friend. I felt how Tess had her back against the wall with nowhere to go. It is this sense of claustrophobia and tension that makes all French novels a perfect read for me, and I loved this book just as much as their previous ones. My only quibble was that I had a few questions at the end that were never fully answered, and I needed a bit more closure – which is the only reason I am giving this 4.5 stars and not 5.

 

Summary:

 

In summary, THE UNHEARD is the type of claustrophobic psychological thriller that places this writer duo firmly on my favourite authors list. I always do a little happy dance when I hear that they have a new book out, knowing that it will mess with my mind and utterly consume me. Even after having finished the book I am still thinking about it. If you love a psychological thriller where you question everything, even your own perception of events, then this book should definitely be on your list – as should the author duo’s previous books.