by Nicci French
SYNOPSIS
She thinks it was murder.
But if she can’t trust herself, can anyone else?
Nancy North and her boyfriend Felix are making the move across London to Harlesden. A new flat, a new area, a new start. Because while Nancy is fine now, she wasn’t fine before. But settling into the new flat and meeting the new neighbours isn’t helped by Felix’s hovering concern. She is all right. She is sticking to her breathing exercises and doctor-prescribed help.
So, when their new neighbour Kira Mullan is found dead by suicide, Felix is understandably worried about Nancy’s frame of mind. But Nancy saw Kira the day before she died and she didn’t strike her as someone who was suicidal – she was upset and angry, yes, but was she upset and angry enough to take her own life?
Nancy is the only one convinced that there’s more to Kira’s death than has been discovered. But all the police and the neighbours see is a vulnerable woman who isn’t sure of what she saw, and might even be imagining things . . .
Is Nancy imagining things, or are there more questions that should be asked about the last days of Kira Mullan?
REVIEW
After suffering a breakdown, Nancy and her partner Felix have been forced to downgrade and move to a cheaper flat. Felix knew the previous tenants and is trying to convince Nancy that this is the fresh start they need. However, within days this all begins to crumble when Kira (the young woman from the downstairs flat) is found dead from an apparent suicide. Nancy is convinced that there is something sinister going on but with her recent mental health issues, nobody will take her seriously.
This is without doubt the most frustrated I’ve been while reading a thriller for a very long time. It was seriously infuriating but in the best way possible - the authors just got it SO right with this whole story.
If you like a ‘love to hate them’ character, then you can take your pick in this book. I’ve always said that I think it’s harder to write an annoying character than a likeable one, and this group of tenants are all especially irritating in their own individual ways.
The Last Days of Kira Mullan had a kind of Agatha Christie feel but in a subtle way - most of the possible suspects were all living within the same building (or next door), meaning that we had the classic 'closed-circle' of suspects to choose between. This Christie vibe continued right up to the big reveal as it was left open that any of the people involved could have been the perpetrator.
This was a very complex storyline which tackled some difficult subjects but I was totally gripped. I thought that the unreliable narrator angle was executed perfectly considering the situation with Nancy’s illness, and even though we didn’t see too much of Detective Maud O’Connor, I still think she’s a fantastic character and I’m hoping we get to follow more of her story in the future!
Thanks to Anne Cater - @RandomTTours, Nicci French - @FrenchNicci and Simon & Schuster UK - @simonschusterUK for the opportunity to read and review.
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Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK Genre: Crime Fiction / Police Procedural / Psychological Thriller
ISBN: 978-1398524132
Pages: 448pp
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