Secret Smile: With a new introduction by Erin Kelly - Softcover

French, Nicci

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141034173 ISBN 13: 9780141034171

Publisher: Penguin, 2008

Synopsis

***Special anniversary edition, with a new introduction by Erin Kelly***

You have an affair. You finish it. You think it's over. You're dead wrong . . .

Miranda Cotton thinks she's put boyfriend Brendan out of her life for good. But two weeks later, she discovers that he's intimately involved with her sister. What began as an embarrassment becomes threatening - then utterly terrifying.

Because Brendan will stop at nothing to be part of Miranda's life - even if it means taking it from her . . .

'Too few novelists can combine this level of page-turning suspense with character care and pin-sharp prose' Erin Kelly, bestselling author of He Said/She Said

About this title

Review:

The husband and wife team that is Nicci French have always produced psychological thrillers of tremendous assurance and acuity, and Secret Smile is no exception. Miranda Cotton is incensed to return home to find her new lover, Brendan, deep into the pages of her diary. She angrily gives him his walking papers. But (in an eerie reminiscence of Ian McEwan's Enduring Love), the spurned (and threatening) lover has no intention of leaving his erstwhile partner alone.

Some weeks later, Miranda is listening to her sister Kerry enthusing about the new man in her life and learns, to her dismay, that the Brendan her sister is praising is her own ex-lover. Soon, she finds herself in a terrifying war of nerves with an opponent who knows how to wield the most lethal of weapons in psychological warfare. Eventually the mental conflict moves towards a physical threat that's every bit as dangerous as the preliminaries. French's novels work so well because of a perfectly judged combination of well-honed narrative (nary a wasted incident) and sharp, truthful characterisation. Here, Miranda and the implacable Brendan are truly memorable creations. --Barry Forshaw

Review:

"Nicci French again achieves a magic blend of taut terror and elegant turn of phrase."

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0141034173
• ISBN 13: 9780141034171
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 400