Beneath the Skin is a gripping psychological thriller by the Top Ten bestselling author, Nicci French
Zoe, Jennifer and Nadia are three women with nothing in common. Except for the man who wants to kill them.
He sends them terrifying letters, full of the intimate details of their lives - and promises that he will bring those lives to a violent, horrible end. But not before he has enjoyed himself.
Invisible and apparently unstoppable, he delights in watching the women suffer, thrilled by his power to leave them utterly helpless, alone in their terror and confusion.
Except they're not all as helpless as he thinks . . .
Praise for Nicci French:
'A nail-biting, can't-put-down read' Marie Claire
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Beneath the Skin is a spooky, highly effective psychological thriller. Initially, the women refuse, as do the police, to take the threats seriously--they are happy, they are inviolable; surely these letters are the work of a harmless crank. But the novel watches Zoe, Nadia and Jenny move from blithely insouciant denial, to frustration, to creeping terror, and finally to the stark realisation that neither they nor anyone else will prevent this killer from destroying them. French skilfully evokes the insidiousness with which the letters invade the women's lives, straining and shattering relationships, pushing each toward fearful insanity. Perhaps the novel's greatest appeal lies in its mordant irony: not only do the stalker's threats push and fester "beneath the skin", but they also draw out the flaws and terrors that are already there. French sketches the women's weaknesses and fears with merciless accuracy, stripping them naked long before the killer arrives to finish what his letters have begun.
The author's talent for psychological portraiture is, in fact, so great as to undermine, however slightly, the novel itself. We become so aware of the women, of their responses, of their needs, that the actual murders arrive as an almost superfluous intrusion. We respect the demands of the genre--a thriller needs thrills, after all--but wistfully regret the loss of the victims, even as we guiltily acknowledge our own voyeuristic culpability in their disintegration. --Kelly Flynn --This text refers to the paperback edition of this title.
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: New. Seller Inventory # Abebooks11761