Land of the Living
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Land of the Living is the latest thriller from the husband-and-wife team of journalist Nicci Gerrard and writer Sean French. They have produced (as Nicci French) several first-rate novels of psychological suspense, such as The Red Room, Beneath the Skinand Killing Me Softly.
Land of the Living is possibly their most assured outing yet, with all the carefully crafted plotting and assiduous characterisation that has distinguished their earlier work. The basic situation is intense and immediate: Abbie Devereux wakes up and finds herself hooded and bound, with no idea of how she ended up in this terrifying state. She is tended to by a man she never sees: a man who makes the promise that he will eventually kill her "like the others". Abbie is forced to re-examine aspects of her identity, her career and the dying relationship she had with her boyfriend. The struggle for survival is physical and mental. If French's compelling novel owes more than a little to John Fowles' masterpiece The Collector, it is none the worse for that. And the delineation of extreme mental states has all the disturbing assurance of Patricia Highsmith. --Barry Forshaw --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
Yet another riveting psychological thriller from this reliable author. The protagonist awakens to find herself trussed up like a chicken, hooded, and at the degrading mercy of a stranger she cannot see, only hear. He has obviously done this before to other women and says he has killed them all. She manages a nightmarish escape but the horrors have only just begun. Despite her emaciated appearance, the authorities conclude her story is invented. She has amnesia and the more she finds out about herself, the more her world becomes beset with pitfalls. French captures immaculately the disorientation, the lack of people to trust, the bewilderment at the chilling pieces of jigsaw. Altogether they make an ace of a spine-tingling thriller, to be backed by national newspaper advertising.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Have you ever laid down your keys in one moment and within the next you havent got a clue where to find them? Searching frantically high and low? Maddening isn't it?! Until of course the moment you find them again and what a relief! Thats the main gist of this story but on a much larger scale of course. Abbie Devereaux opens her eyes to find herself at the hands of a sadistic captor.She's tied, bound gagged and hooded with a wire noose around her neck. After days of terror and degradation she returns to the 'land of the living' looking for help and protection from the police and the medical authorities. But she is met with nothing but disbelief and accusations of self delusion. In short, everybody (almost)including the police, the medical specialists and even her beloved best friends doubt her sanity and she almost faces charges of wasting police time. Its here that the story really takes off. We spend time with Abbie who starts out with nothing barely an identity that she can recall and faces a total memory block of people faces places and names leading upto the terror of captivity. But she knows he's out there! An he knows that she knows and he's out to get her!
If you like mystery and suspense, join with Abbie in a freezing cold, dark wintery London and put back the peices of the jig saw of the terror which remains out there....watching and looking, hidden and dangerous!
If you like mystery and suspense, join with Abbie in a freezing cold, dark wintery London and put back the peices of the jig saw of the terror which remains out there....watching and looking, hidden and dangerous!
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Perfect Paperback
Abbie Devereaux wakes up one day and finds she can't move. She can't see anything either and she seems to have lost a crucial bit of her memory. She runs through all possible scenarios and arrives at the obvious one : She's been kidnapped. As to why and how she still does not know. Her captor shows up once per day and feeds her, only to disappear again and to leave her (and the reader) to her thoughts in the darkness.
Well, if that doesn't make you feel claustrophobic, I don't know what will. For me at least it was one of the most intense reading experiences so far. Actually at one point I was worried that the whole book would be like that, Abbie lying in the darkness, trying to think of escape and struggling to keep her sanity. To answer that question, she does escape, but that doesn't necessarily mean her ordeals are over. She tries to get her life back and most of all to fill those blanks in her memory. All the time knowing that the kidnapper is still around and may still be after her.
Abbie seems to be a typical Nicci French protagonist. A business woman with hidden qualities that surface under stress. Well, I have no problem with that, I took an instant liking to all of them so far. And even if you think that Abbie is not determined, only stubborn, it still makes for very interesting and captivating reading. This may be the best psychological thriller by the Nicci French team yet.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is the first book of Nicci French's I have read. I shall immediately get all her other books. It was exciting, well written and although some have criticised the ending I thought it was quite realistic. A woman, on her own, how else would she effectively disable a man. I won't reveal what she does but suffice to say when she was his captive in the first pages of the book I was actually willing her to do just that should the chance present itself. A great read. I couldn't put it down.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Land of the Eating
Let me start by saying this is the first Nicci French novel I've read, and that having read it, I absolutely will not be put off reading more Nicci French stuff. Why? Read more
Published 12 months ago by Paperback writer
Gripping
This book catches you from the first page and you just cannot put it down until you get to the finish - excellent, best book I have ever read without a doubt!
Published 22 months ago by Mrs. C. M. Smith
:-(
I love Nikki French books usually, and I couldn't wait to start reading this one. It started off well, describing her ordeal and you feel really sorry for her when no-one believes... Read more
Published 23 months ago by K. Davies
Female gothic updated
Abbie wakes up bound and hooded to find herself captured by a strange man in a dark basement... but even escape doesn't end her nightmare as she has a complete memory loss of how... Read more
Published on 29 May 2010 by Roman Clodia
Good but suspend your disbelief
I love a good crime book! I love the page-turning suspense and what-will-happen-next-ness of them. This was definitely a page-turner but with a healthy dose of cries of "oh... Read more
Published on 29 May 2010 by Boof
page turner
Never read Nicci French before was given the book by a friend not really my kind of read,started it one night and have enjoyed it. Read more
Published on 11 Feb 2010 by DC Magpie
Read this without interruption!
I cannot even begin to describe what happens in this book without spoiling it for you. All I can say is that it will grip your attention from the very beginning. Read more
Published on 29 Sep 2009 by Lance Mitchell
this is a book that makes u think
i cryed at parts of this book cus iv been in places and felt the same as abie , allways whaching ur back scared he or they will get u , i live a simler life to her , and at times i... Read more
Published on 12 July 2008 by Anne Obree
In my Top 5 best books ever...
I got this book free with a magazine a couple of years ago. I read the first paragraph and that was that... I was hooked. This book is absolutely fantastic. Read more
Published on 29 May 2008 by Donna
Thrilling
I think this is the best Nicci French story so far. I was absorbed in the plot right from page one and couldn't put it down.
Published on 12 Jan 2008 by Patience
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
