Book info

• Title Killing Me Softly
• Author Nicci French
• Year 1999
• Genre Thriller

You have everything. But you give it up for an affair. You're in passionate love. And grave danger... Alice Loudon couldn't resist abandoning her old, safe life for a wild affair. And in Adam Tallis, a rugged mountaineer with a murky past, she finds a man who can teach her things about herself that she never even suspected. But sexual obsession has its dark side and so does Adam. Soon both are threatening all that Alice has left. First her sanity. Then her life.

Thoughts

This was an absolutely gripping read from start to finish, a story of lustful romance gone very wrong. Even at the start, when it was the depressing details of one relationship ending and another clearly doomed one starting, it was unputdownable, leading slowly, step by step, to the achingly haunting conclusion.

What it does well, is highlight how you can’t and shouldn’t judge people without knowing the details. The warnings are all there: that Alice got so deep into a relationship with someone she knew nothing about, that he put on one front to everyone, was so protective but also potentially violent, and that those at the end found it so hard to believe the truth.

It’s all about trust, really, and that’s what makes it so sad. There are no winners in this story, and the end just wrapped me up in knots. Fantastic work.

Rating: 5 / 5