Blue Monday; Nicci French

Title: Blue Monday

Author:  Nicci French

Publication Year: 2012

Publisher: Pamela Dorman Books

Edition: eGalley

Source: NetGalley
Setting:  Florida....

Date Completed: 5/1/2012

Rating: 3/5

Recommend: no


Blue Monday, by Nicci French is actually the work of husband and wife team of Nicci Gerrard and Sean French. It is the first novel of seven in a new psychological thriller series featuring a 30-something, protagonist, Dr. Frieda Klein. The story takes place in London, England where Dr. Klein is a psychotherapist. She's a private, somewhat aloof person who sleeps too little and sometimes drinks a bit too much, and definitely has her demons. This first book of the new series is about a child abduction case.

The novel begins 22 years earlier with two young sisters walking home from school. The younger one Joanna Vine is taking he sweet old time walking, while older sister, Rosie, is anxious to get to the candy shop. Rosie calls for her sister to hurry up, but then goes inside the shop, and Joanna very shows up. The little girl is never found, and, she is believed to be dead.

Fast forward 22 years and five-year old Matthew Farraday goes missing. When Dr. Klein's takes on a new patient, Alan Dekker, a man who feels like he is going crazy. When he begins to tell his story to Dr. Klein, she is faced with a quite the dilemma. Her patient is troubled by dreams and constant thoughts of a child who looks like the boy who was just abducted. Unsure what to do with the information, Frieda goes to the police where Chief Inspector Malcolm Karlsson has been assigned to the Matthew Farraday abduction case. With very little information other than some rather vague information provided by Dr. Klein, Inspector Karlsson begins his investigation. Although Dekker has a pretty solid alibi for his whereabouts when Matthew went missing, before long it appears as if the Joanna Vine missing child case from 1987 and the Matthew Farraday case might have some similarities.

I loved the way the novel started out with the abduction which took place 22 years earlier. It's a complex mystery with characters that are complex and flawed. However, after that terrific opening, the story moved at a snail's pace. There were lots and lots of details about the streets of London which I grew tired of, however the clues peppered along the way kept me holding on. Once the story began to pick up again, there were lots of twists and turns, and a few nail-biting moments, but I was really looking forward to more from this first of a series. In the end I was a bit disappointed.