The Town Herald

The netpaper about Elftowners, by Elftowners, for Elftowners.

Land of the Living, by Nicci French

Review by [Kaimee]



Nicci French is a master of psychological thrillers, creating plots so twisted and terrifying that -- in my case at least -- the book is often thrown across the room before swiftly being retrieved and voraciously finished. It’s no wonder these stories seem to tear you apart; They are written by the two minds of married writing duo Nicci Gerrard and Sean French. These two authors have written together and achieved great acclaim under the pseudonym Nicci French since 1995.

The Land of The Living is the story of a young and stubborn Londoner, Abbie Deveraux, who awakens alone and bound in darkness, unable to remember how she came to be there. Her only clues are the cruel taunts of her kidnapper, who is simply a voice who chants the names of his previous victims to mock her, as he keeps her locked away in the dark. But Abbie has spirit and bloody-mindedness on her side, and as she comes to learn about the other girls she comes to know them, and know their mistakes. She does not despair, instead she counts the moments until she can return to her normal life - the Land of the Living. Through chance Abbie manages to escape, and stumbling and disoriented; she manages to reach a nearby house for help.

Waking in hospital, Abbie desperately tells her story, but since her memory of her capture and escape are so foggy she has no concrete evidence. The police can find no crime scene, and the glowing life she had painted is all lies, she is without a job, a home, a car, and has left her boyfriend. The experts believe that it’s a fantasy, a cry for help, and everyone, including her family and her old friends begin to treat her as a paranoid hysteric. The police drop her, and Abbie, shocked at the disbelief and determined to prove her sanity and rebuild her life, begins the painstaking journey of retracing her steps from the last day of her old life. Abbie knows her time is running out, because while she’s tracking herself, so is the killer.

Scrabbling to discover more of her life over the past few weeks, Abbie is shocked to find out about new acquaintances, new friends, and a new room mate -- who’s missing. Not knowing who to trust, and being stalked by the kidnapper who knows more about herself than she does, Abbie faces a world where everyone is the enemy.
This is a story of fear, paranoia, and fierce determination. The thriller carries us to a place we didn’t expect, a land where instead of investigating the crime, the detectives refuse to. The horror is not that of the dyed-in-the-wool psychopath, but the excruciating tale of a bureaucratic society where the victim is painted as the perpetrator. This is an absolutely enthralling thriller about the strength of will and character demanded to extricate the heroine from her own problem, and to rebuild her life and catch the killer in the process.



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