Abbie Devereaux wakes in the dark. She is hooded, bound at her hands and feet. She doesn't know where she is or how she got there. A man she never sees feeds her and talks to her. He promises to keep her alive for now, but says he will kill her - like the others. But Abbie has spirit, strength and bloody-mindedness on her side. She counts the seconds she is alone, tells herself stories, remembers her life, talks to her captor and plots her survival. Above all she dreams of returning to normal, careless, everyday life - the land of the living.

Among her memories are a horribly stressful career and a disintegrating relationship with her boyfriend, Terry. Could here be a connection between her real life and the voice in the darkness? And how can she survive in a place where fear becomes madness and the effort to survive seems too much to bear...?

I read Nicci French's first (?) book, The Memory Game, a few years ago and enjoyed it immensely. The writing was great, but there were a few too many characters to keep up with in a complex and involved thriller. A hostage and her captor probably won't have that problem. The story sounds a lot like Gerald's Game, by Stephen King; a woman alone with her memories, trying to work out some way to escape. I'm not sure the concept grabs me enough to send it to the top of my to be read pile, but its intriguing enough for me to want to get to it soon.

August 1st 2004
The End

This was a wonderful, intense thriller both skilfully executed and well written. I really enjoyed reading it, and it caught my attention from the beginning and held it until the final page turned.

Abbie Deveraux manages to escape a horrific abduction, that almost cost her her life but when she makes it back to the land of the living she faces an even more terrifying world. The authorities don't believe she has been abducted, and when she is healed she is sent out into the world with no memory and no protection. Worse, the person who tried to kill her is still out there, stalking her and she quickly realises that in order to save herself she must find the killer. To do this she has to piece together the fragments of her memory and retrace her steps until she comes face to face with her destiny.

My mum told me I had to read this book because it would completely vindicate me of my hatred and loathing of shrinks. She was right! When Abbie is seen by a shrink she is totally screwed over, exactly as I've seen them do time and again. The shrink in this book starts a chain-reaction of events that put Abbie in peril.

I really enjoyed the progression of this book; the logical steps Abbie follows in order to claw back her memories. The idea for this novel may not be the most original, but unlike so many it manages to be both original and consistent. My only complaint was the very final stage in the puzzle when Abbie stumbled into the building she was held in, as it seemed to happen too quickly from leaving a busy street where such crimes would have been easily detected.

That aside, should you be interested in a dark, claustrophobic thriller Nicci French has definitely delivered.