I try not to repeat myself too much when it comes to the authors I pick for this column. But there is one name I always make an exception for: Nicci French, because this husband and wife duo just keep going from strength to strength. Their latest, The Last Days of Kira Mullan (Simon & Schuster), follows Nancy North, who is recovering from a mental breakdown and being cared for solicitously by her boyfriend, Felix, as they move to a new flat in Harlesden, north-west London. She meets her new neighbours – including, briefly, Kira, whom she bumps into the evening before Kira is found dead by her own hand. Nancy, though, doesn’t believe Kira took her own life, and begins investigating when the police quickly close the case.
The trouble is, nobody takes Nancy seriously. Once people know about her illness, “they look at you in a different way. Every odd thing you do, anything you say, if you get a bit sad, a bit angry, people think that might be a sign of you going crazy again.” As she shouts into the void – “Being angry is not being haywire. Being suspicious is not being paranoid. Wanting answers is not a sign of paranoid delusion” – her life begins to unravel. This is the pair’s 26th novel, and they are still keeping me up far too late, rushing through the pages in a panicky, obsessive fashion as I race to the conclusion.
