Tuesday’s Gone by Nicci French

400000000000000970979_s4Tuesday’s Gone is the second book in Nicci French’s series featuring the main character psychologist Frieda Klein.  This was somewhat of a departure for the husband and wife duo who in the past of written mostly standalone thrillers.  Sometimes you can read series books out-of-order, but in this case I would recommend that you read the first book in this series, “Blue Monday” before “Tuesday’s Gone”.   Not only does it introduce you to the main heroine, but there are also key story lines that are started in the first book, that are then picked up in “Tuesday’s Gone”, that you will not understand if you haven’t read “Blue Monday”. I will say that “Tuesday’s Gone” may actually be slightly better than “Blue Monday” so if you do read the first book and are lukewarm on it, try the second, because it gets even better!

Michelle Doyce, a social worker checking on a mental patient, finds her patient having tea with the decaying corpse of man in the living room. Despite Frieda Klein’s obvious misgivings, Klein’s colleague, DCI Karlsson strong arms her into again consulting on a case with him,  and soon the dead man is identified as Robert Poole a cunning, master con man.  It is not long before Klein and Karlsson discover a trail of Poole’s “marks” all of whom  have motives for his murder.   Frieda soon finds out that whoever was responsible for Robert Poole’s death may now have her in their sights.

From the gripping opening chapter, thought the intricately plotted book, “Tuesday’s Gone” is a great thriller that never lets up and leaves you wanting to know what’s next.  In a series life it is still very much on the upswing, which in my mind is a good thing. Who knows what Wednesday will bring…