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Nicci French is the pen name of English husband-and-wife pair Nicci Gerrard and Sean French, international bestselling authors of psychological thrillers.

Born in Worcestershire in 1958, Nicci Gerrard studied English Literature at Oxford University where she graduated with a first class honors degree.

Born in Bristol in 1959, Sean French similarly studied English Literature at Oxford University where he also graduated with a first class honors degree.

But despite being in Oxford at the same time as Nicci, their paths never interweaved until 1990 when they met at New Statesman.

Married in the same year, the couple began writing together in 1995, with their debut novel, The Memory Game, eventually getting published in 1997.

More about Nicci French

Genres: Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

United Kingdom

Pseudonym: Nicci French

Non Series

  • The Memory Game (1997)
  • The Safe House (1998)
  • Killing Me Softly (1998)
  • Beneath the Skin (2000)
  • The Red Room (2001)
  • Land of the Living (2002)
  • Secret Smile (2003)
  • Catch Me When I Fall (2005)
  • Losing You (2006)
  • Until It's Over (2007)
  • What to Do When Someone Dies (2008)
  • The Other Side of the Door (2009)
  • The Lying Room (2019)
  • House of Correction (2020)
  • The Unheard (2021)
  • The Favor (2022)

Collections

  1. #Youdunnit (2013)

Frieda Klein Series

  1. Blue Monday (2011)
  2. Tuesday's Gone (2012)
  3. Waiting for Wednesday (2013)
  4. Thursday's Children (2014)
  5. Friday on My Mind (2015)
  6. Saturday Requiem (2016)
  7. Sunday Morning Coming Down (2017)
  8. Day of the Dead (2018)
Collections

Detailed book overview

Non Series

The Memory Game

“Your recollection of your childhood is nothing but perfect. But what if your memory is nothing but a lie?”

Upon the discovery of skeletal remains in the Martellos' garden, Jane Martello is shocked to learn that it belongs to her childhood friend Natalie, who mysteriously vanished two and a half decades ago.

Persuaded by a therapist to try and recall bits of her lost memories, Jane looks to uncover exactly what happened when she was a child, and the events that led to Natalie’s demise.

However, could digging into her own past, and that of Natalie, put Jane’s life in terrible danger?

Author: Nicci French
First Release: 1997
Ebook: B01K2E41KI
Publisher: Penguin UK
The Safe House

Samantha Laschen, a doctor specializing in PTSD, moves from the brisk and busy London to the Essex coast with her young daughter, Elsie, in a desperate bid to flee from the troubles that have riddled her life.

Fiona Mackenzie survived by a whisker during a vicious attack that took the lives of her parents.

Desperately in need of a safe haven, the police consider Sam as the most suitable person to help Fiona rebuild her life.

What Sam however doesn’t know is that in allowing Fiona to become a part of her family, she exposes herself, and her young daughter, to dangers she couldn't have possibly perceived.

Author: Nicci French
First Release: 1998
Ebook: B01K2VFO6Q
Publisher: Michael Joseph
Killing Me Softly

A loving boyfriend, an amazing group of friends, and a demanding career as a research scientist: Alice Loudon seems to have it all.

One morning, while on her way to work, she locks eyes with an incredibly good-looking man.

A bold and adventurous mountain climber who is viewed by many as a hero, Adam Tallis is the living embodiment of every woman’s fantasy man.

As a lover, he is better than anything that Alice could have possibly imagined.

And it doesn’t take long before Alice is hooked, willing to do anything just to stay by his side.

Things however soon escalate to an incredible level of madness...and fear.

Author: Nicci French
First Release: 1998
ISBN: 978-0446696883
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Beneath the Skin

Zoe, Jenny and Nadia are three women of completely different ages and backgrounds. The one thing they however have in common is that someone has sent them a note, threatening to kill them.

Although the police don't take the threats lightly, there are no outright suspects.

When the threat of violence however intensifies, the victims soon become the accused, as authorities desperately try to uncover why exactly the three women could have attracted the wrath on a serial killer.

Victimized by both the faceless stalker and the police, Zoe, Jenny, and Nadia must individually decide what is more important: the natural will to survive, or the desire to destroy?

Author: Nicci French
First Release: 2000
ISBN: 978-1405920636
Publisher: Penguin
The Red Room

Kit Quinn is a female psychologist exposed to a dangerous world of crime scenes, interrogation scenes, and hospitals for the criminally insane.

Left wounded after a vicious attack by a prisoner, Kit’s first instinct is to put it all behind her and get back to work.

When the police however approach her to advise them on a simple murder inquiry that would help link the man who attacked her to a series of killings, Kit declines to accept the obvious.

Obsessively determined to uncover the truth, Kit begins her own investigation that plunges her into an underworld of the missing and the unloved—putting her own life in danger.

Author: Nicci French
First Release: 2001
ISBN: 978-0446611374
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Land of the Living

“What would you do if you woke up only to find that you’re gagged and bound? Even worse is that the man who visits and feeds you insists that your only fate, is death?”

Upon waking up, Abbie Devereaux doesn't have a clue about where she is or how she even got there.

Shocked and frightened, she can’t even remember her own name. Nevertheless, the one thing she is certain of is that she will make it out of this nightmare alive.

But even if she does, who is to say that her captor won’t still be out there looking for her?

Next time, there may be no escape...

Author: Nicci French
First Release: 2002
ISBN: 978-0718145170
Publisher: Penguin Books
Secret Smile

“You have an affair then end it, thinking it’s all over. But you're dead wrong.”

Kerri, Miranda Cotton's sister, has a new man in her life.

Gorgeous and raven-haired, he seems to be genuinely in love with Kerri.

The only problem is that Brendan isn't who he claims to be.

Miranda knows this more than anyone else, because she ended an affair with him a couple of weeks ago after she found him going through her diary.

And now what began as something awkward quickly becomes threatening, because Brendan will do whatever it takes to become part of Miranda's life.

Author: Nicci French
First Release: 2003
ISBN: 978-0141034171
Publisher: Penguin Books
Catch Me When I Fall

“Who will catch you when you fall if you’re living life on the edge?”

Holly Krauss is an incredibly hardworking city girl.

Despite having a cozy life, complete with a demanding job and a nice circle of friends, Holly secretly enjoys the thrill and danger of living on the reckless side of life.

When keeping her two lives separate becomes a problem, her secret life infiltrates into her safe one—turning her world upside down.

Soon, she's making mistakes at home and at work, owes dangerous people money, and is being stalked by a mysterious figure.

Is Holly being paranoid, or is her future in terrible danger?

Author: Nicci French
First Release: 2005
ISBN: 978-0141034188
Publisher: Penguin Books
Losing You

It’s Nina Landry’s birthday.

She’ll be leaving in a few hours, with her two children and new boyfriend, for their Christmas holiday in Florida.

But Charlie, her fifteen-year-old daughter, hasn’t returned home after spending the night at a friend’s place.

Already running late and with a flight to catch, Nina is slowly becoming furious.

But as time goes by, fury turns into worry, and worry quickly becomes panic.

Could Charlie have run away from home? Or has something terrible happened to her?

What’s more worrying is that nobody, neither the police, nor Charlie’s friends, not even Charlie’s father, is taking her disappearance seriously.

The secrets are about to surface…

Author: Nicci French
First Release: 2006
ISBN: 978-0062979049
Publisher: HarperLuxe
Until It's Over

Astrid Bell is a young and athletic London cycle courier who seems to bring bad luck to others.

It first began with her neighbor, Peggy Farrell, who accidentally knocked her off her bike. Not long after the incident, Peggy’s lifeless body is discovered brutally murdered in an alley.

A couple of days later, while on an assignment to collect a package from a moneyed woman called Ingrid de Soto, Astrid is shocked to find her client viciously murdered inside her lavish home.

Is this all a coincidence? Not according to the police.

Suspicion quickly intensifies between Astrid and her six housemates, given how bad luck always comes in threes.

Author: Nicci French
First Release: 2007
ISBN: 978-0062876058
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
What to Do When Someone Dies

What do you do when you lose your husband to a devastating car crash?

What would you do upon realizing that at the time of his death, your husband was in the company of a mystery woman who was his passenger?

Was your husband having an affair?

Grieving widow Ellie Falkner has many unanswered questions lingering in her mind.

The only way to protect the memory of her late husband and prove doubters wrong is to find Milena Livingstone and uncover the truth about what she was doing in Greg’s car that night.

But is Ellie really ready to learn the terrible truth about the night that her husband died?

Author: Nicci French
First Release: 2008
ISBN: 978-0141020921
Publisher: Penguin Books
The Other Side of the Door

Music teacher Bonnie Graham has spent the summer rehearsing with a band in London ahead of their performance at a friend's wedding.

What was however meant to be a summer full of happiness, love and music turns into one rife with treachery and murderous plots.

And as she stands in the open door of her friend's apartment, with a lifeless body soaked in blood lying on the floor, Bonnie can’t help but wonder what could have possibly gone wrong.

What will she do now?

NB: Originally known as Complicit, this novel was published as The Other Side of the Door in the US.

Author: Nicci French
First Release: 2009
ISBN: 978-0141040745
Publisher: Penguin Books
The Lying Room

It was to be nothing more than a mid-life fling, something different from the two decades of marriage to her ever exhausted husband, and her increasingly estranged children.

She was never meant to find him viciously murdered, with her perfume all over him.

Desperate, she wipes away everything that could lead back to her. But did she forget something?

Her worst fears are confirmed when she Detective Chief Inspector Alastair Hitching shows up at her doorstep.

With every lie she tells, Neve plunges deeper and deeper into the dark abyss.

But DCI Hitching isn’t the only one watching Neve. The adamant killer is about to make a deadly move…

Author: Nicci French
First Release: 2019
ISBN: 978-0062676726
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
House of Correction

Tabitha is not a murderer.

When a body is discovered in Okeham, England, Tabitha is shocked to find herself being placed in handcuffs. It must be a mistake. She’d only recently moved back to her childhood hometown, not even getting a chance to reacquaint herself with the neighbors. How could she possibly be a murder suspect?

She knows she’s not.

As Tabitha is shepherded through the system, her entire life is picked apart and scrutinized —her history of depression and medications, her decision to move back to a town she supposedly hated...and of course, her past relationship with the victim, her former teacher. But most unsettling, Tabitha’s own memories of that day are a complete blur.

She thinks she’s not.

From the isolation of the correctional facility, Tabitha dissects every piece of evidence, every testimony she can get her hands on, matching them against her own recollections. But as dark, long-buried memories from her childhood come to light, Tabatha begins to question if she knows what kind of person she is after all. The world is convinced she’s a killer. Tabatha needs to prove them all wrong.

But what if she’s only lying to herself?

Author: Nicci French
First Release: 2020
ISBN: 978-0063021358
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
The Unheard

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.

Author: Nicci French
First Release: 2021
ISBN: 978-0063137745
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
The Favor

A young woman agrees to do a favor for her first love—but when things go horribly wrong, one small task turns into a murder investigation that completely upends her life, ensnaring her in a deadly web of secrets and lies.

It’s a simple enough favor.

Jude hasn’t seen Liam in years, but when he shows up at her work asking for a favor, she finds she can’t refuse. All Jude has to do is pick Liam up at a country train station—without telling anyone. So what if she has to lie to her fiancé? Jude is still committed to him and their imminent wedding, even if she and Liam were in love once.

She owes him.

After the car crash that changed everything years ago, bright, ambitious Jude went to medical school, back on the path she had planned before meeting moody, artistic Liam. Meanwhile, he never fully recovered from the dark stain the accident left on his record.

Now he’s gone.

When the police show up at the station instead of Liam, Jude realizes that she knows nothing about the man he’s become. Now she’s tangled up in his life, the last person to have seen him, and maybe the only one who can uncover the truth about what went wrong—even if she destroys her own life in the process.

Author: Nicci French
First Release: 2022
ISBN: 978-0063243620
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks

Collections

#Youdunnit

What crime has been committed?

Who is the victim?

And who will solve the case?

Write a short crime story, using plot details crowdsourced on Twitter. This was the challenge we put to three Penguin authors - Nicci French, Time Weaver and Alastair Gunn. How different would the stories be? And how would the authors cope, with so much of the detail out of their hands?

#Youdunnit

Three very different murders and three unique takes on your travel photographer turned reluctant sleuth, Lucinda Berrington. Deep in the suffocating British countryside, the gangland streets of Cape Town or the glossy world of professional cycling, Twitter followers are meeting an unsavory demise.

Maybe next time you log in you'll wonder...

Are you following them, or are they following you?

This ebook is brought to you free of charge by Penguin, in association with Specsavers.

Author: Nicci French
First Release: 2013
Ebook: B00G6MR6TE
Publisher: Penguin

Frieda Klein Series

Blue Monday

The front pages of newspapers all over the nation are splashed with the face of an abducted five-year-old named Matthew Faraday.

Although both his parents and the police are desperate, Psychotherapist Frieda Klein could help find the boy before it's too late.

The key to finding the child however lies in one of her patients who describes having dreams of a boy who looks a lot like Matthew.

Initially dismissed by the police, Frieda is summoned by Detective Chief Inspector Karlsson after links emerge from an unsolved abduction two decades earlier.

Will Frieda, a specialist in dealing with neurotic persons, help find a smart but dangerous killer before they run out of time?

Author: Nicci French
First Release: 2011
ISBN: 978-0143122722
Publisher: Penguin Books
Tuesday's Gone

“Just when Klein thought she was done with the police, the DCI comes knocking.”

While on a routine home visit to one of her patients, a social worker is shocked to find her client serving afternoon tea to a naked, decomposing corpse in a London flat.

With no clues leading to the identification of the dead man, Detective Chief Inspector Karlsson decides to solicit the help of Psychotherapist Frieda Klein, who soon learns that the body belonged to a notorious conman named Robert Poole.

And the more they look into his life, the more victims and motives they uncover.

Solving the case however becomes even harder when Frieda’s troubled past refuses to stay buried.

Author: Nicci French
First Release: 2012
ISBN: 978-0143124962
Publisher: Penguin Books
Waiting for Wednesday

When the lifeless body of Ruth Lennox, a mother of three, is discovered drenched in blood, Detective Chief Inspector Karlsson turns to the smart but tormented London Psychotherapist, Frieda Klein.

However, when it is discovered that Ruth had a secret life, her family unites now more than ever in a desperate bid to solve the murder.

Still fresh from the recent attempt on her life, Frieda takes a lethal step down a path that could lead to an evasive serial killer; one that she may never return from.

Is she however getting closer to solving the case? Or is the paranoia getting the better of her?

Author: Nicci French
First Release: 2013
ISBN: 978-0143127178
Publisher: Penguin Books
Thursday's Children

“Two crimes, decades apart.”

Two decades ago, a teenage Frieda Klein was mercilessly attacked in her own home.

Nobody however believed her, neither the police, nor her friends. Insult was added to injury when her own mother didn’t believe her.

Frustrated, Frieda left town, vowing to never return.

Decades later, when a former classmate runs to her claiming that her daughter was seemingly attacked at home in a similar fashion, Frieda dives in head first.

Returning to the tiny town that refused to help her in her hour of need, Frieda is determined to help the girl.

Someone is however hell-bent on stopping her from uncovering the truth.

Author: Nicci French
First Release: 2014
ISBN: 978-0143127215
Publisher: Penguin Books
Friday on My Mind

A lifeless body is discovered floating in the River Thames.

Identifying the deceased man however shouldn’t be hard for the police, as his wrist has a hospital band with the words: Dr F. Klein.

London Psychotherapist Frieda Klein is however alive and breathing.

But Frieda soon finds herself in unchartered waters after evidence from the investigation links her to the murder—making her the key suspect.

With no way of proving her innocence to the police, Frieda is left with no choice but to make a daring decision in a desperate effort to not only uncover the truth, but also protect her loved ones before it's too late.

Author: Nicci French
First Release: 2015
ISBN: 978-1405918596
Publisher: Penguin Books
Saturday Requiem

Hannah Docherty was eighteen-years-old when she was arrested for the vicious killing of her family thirteen years ago.

The case ended as soon as it begun, with Hannah getting locked up in a secure hospital.

So when Psychotherapist Frieda Klein is requested to meet and assess her, she hesitantly agrees—only to discover just how badly Hannah has become a grim shadow of her former self.

Tormented by the possibility that Hannah could very well have been a victim rather than an assailant, Frieda embarks on a truth-finding mission.

She however soon learns that a sinister figure will stop at nothing to ensure that the truth remains buried.

Author: Nicci French
First Release: 2016
ISBN: 978-1405918619
Publisher: Penguin Books
Sunday Morning Coming Down

 “A sinister figure is after Frieda.”

London Psychotherapist Frieda Klein has for the longest time insisted that serial killer Dean Reeve managed to beat the system and escape justice.

Although the police have their own conclusion, Frieda is convinced that Reeve is still alive.

When she discovers the decomposing remains under her floor belonging to a former police officer that she had hired to hunt for Reeve, the evidence becomes crystal clear.

And Frieda won’t rest until justice takes its course.

The perpetrator is however also coming for Frieda, and her loved ones.

NB: Originally known as Sunday Morning Coming Down, this novel was published as Sunday Silence in the US.

Author: Nicci French
First Release: 2017
ISBN: 978-1405918633
Publisher: Penguin Books
Day of the Dead

A decade ago, London Psychotherapist Frieda Klein was obsessed with finding Dean Reeve—a deranged killer who could not only impersonate anyone, but was also obsessed with Frieda.

Although she worked with, and occasionally against the police in the ensuing years, Frieda has now been forced into hiding after a string of murders announces Reeve’s return.

Will she be able to rise from the shadows and face her archrival in one last confrontation?

Criminology student Lola Hayes has tracked down Frieda, determined to know the woman overcome by darkness.

But in doing so, she also becomes the target of a deranged killer.

Author: Nicci French
First Release: 2018
ISBN: 978-0062676702
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks