Killing Me Softly Book

Following the success of The Memory Game, Killing Me Softly is Nicci French's third novel--a genuinely compelling, often compulsive, study of love and violence. French is prepared to risk romantic fantasy: the chance encounter with a beautiful man in the street--"he was wearing black jeans and a black leather jacket, and then I looked up at his face"--who draws Alice, the narrator, away from her lover and her life: "Please," he said then, still not taking his eyes off my face. "Will you come with me?" Adam Tallis is a hero: a sexual hero, certainly, but also a man--a climber-- who has saved lives. Or has he? Told in continuous flashback, we know from the start of this novel that something has gone wrong--but what, why and who will remain in question. Adam is a seducer--a dangerous one--and French uses him to explore the devastation of requited love (what happens to a modern woman if she does marry an ideal?). But just how dangerous he is, who is threatened most by this passion, is part of the puzzle and intelligence of this book--right up to, and beyond, its remarkable conclusion.--Vicky LebeauRead More