Saturday Requiem by Nicci French

Hello lovely followers and readers alike. I’m back after a brief stint away in Crete I’m feeling refreshed and ready to review again. So a big welcome back with my first new review of the summer Saturday Requiem by Nicci French.

I accepted this book for review as it had an edgy, enticing synopsis and sounded right up my street in the crime-thriller genre. Lets just say it did not disapoint. Now the first thing I need to disclaim is that this is the first Nicci French book I’ve actually read and Saturday Requiem is the 6th book in the Frieda Klein series; something I hadn’t realised when I chose it. There were therefore elements of it which I didn’t quite ‘get’ because I didn’t know the history of the other novels (something I plan to rectify really soon!) so if you’re new to Ms French I would suggest reading the preceding novels first.

However, despite this minor issue it didn’t stop the book from being what it is: a damn good read! The story of Saturday Requiem follows the psychotherapist Frieda Klein and her mottley band of friends like her niece Chloe, a police detective Karlsson, Josef the Ukranian handyman and Chloe’s ex boyfriend Jack who has himself been trying out a job as a therapist. Frieda is enlisted by Levin a secretive man who saved her skin in the past and is now recalling the favour. He wants Frieda to investigate a case where he thinks someone might have been convicted of a mass murder which they didn’t commit.

The authors true skill here is creating the element of danger. Not only with the current case where evidence is going missing and you start to suspect everyone from the ex husband to the less obvious but also the ominous presence of a character from Frieda’s past. Despite not having read the previous novels I could sense the danger from this haunting character and it only intrigued me more.

The story was easy to follow and Klein’s interactions with her niece reminded me a lot of Kay Scarpetta and her niece Lucy in the Patricia Cornwall series. I would therefore say if you like the Scarpetta novels these are the English versions and definitely worth a read. The one let down for me is that there was not a lot of emotional response from characters which made some parts seem stiff and clinical. This is something I think also applies to the Scarpetta novels. Other than that it was a fantastic read and a highly recommended 4* from me. I’ll definitely be giving her other novels in this series a go.