Blue Monday

Frieda Klein, Book 1

By: Nicci French

Narrated by: Beth Chalmers

Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

The stunning first book in a new series of psychological thrillers introducing an unforgettable London psychotherapist.

Frieda Klein is a solitary, incisive psychotherapist who spends her sleepless nights walking along the ancient rivers that have been forced underground in modern London. She believes that the world is a messy, uncontrollable place, but what we can control is what is inside our heads. This attitude is reflected in her own life, which is an austere one of refuge, personal integrity, and order.

The abduction of five-year-old Matthew Farraday provokes a national outcry and a desperate police hunt. And when his face is splashed over the newspapers, Frieda cannot ignore the coincidence: one of her patients has been having dreams in which he has a hunger for a child. A red-haired child he can describe in perfect detail, a child the spitting image of Matthew. She finds herself in the center of the investigation, serving as the reluctant sidekick of the chief inspector.

Drawing listeners into a haunting world in which the terrors of the mind have spilled over into real life, Blue Monday introduces a compelling protagonist and a chilling mystery that will appeal to listeners of dark crime fiction and fans of In Treatment and The Killing.

©2012 Nicci French (P)2012 Penguin

Critic reviews

“Fast-paced and spooky…it leaves readers with the promise of intriguing tales to come.” (People)

“A neat puzzle with a satisfying resolution and a terrific twist at the end.” (The New York Times Book Review)

“A superb psychological thriller…With its brooding atmosphere, sustained suspense, last-minute plot twist, and memorable cast of characters, this series debut will leave readers eager to discover what color Tuesday will be.” (Publishers Weekly, starred review)

Ok. Entertaining enough.

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

No. 97% of the book is a run around, half of which goes nowhere. The entire book leads up to several mysteries getting 'solved' within the last 10 minutes of the book. Very unrealistic.

Would you be willing to try another book from Nicci French? Why or why not?

I did. I listened to the next 2 books in this series. It seems I have ran out of good books to listen to.

Great story

This is a great book, great story and great narrator. I am a new fan.

Not horrible, but I'm not on board for the series.

This book is written by two people. The intro makes that clear, and then listening to the first half makes that somewhat clear as well.

The first half of the book seems intent on establishing Frieda as a (n uninteresting) character. We are treated to several interactions and threads that have zero bearing on the main plot. They aren't even small side things either, they take up large parts of the tale, are often annoying (the niece) and go absolutely no where later on.

What makes the above worse, is that in the first half of the book, the scenes are often abruptly ended with little resolution and we move on to something completely unrelated. It's not only jarring, but also leads you to wonder just what is actually important in what you hear. That would be great if things were cleverly written to incorporate bits and pieces of all the little situations you're forced to endure, but, as mentioned, they have pretty much zero bearing on the main story.

The narrator is pretty good, though she does all male voices in an annoying nasal tone which can be distracting at first.

As for the actual plot of the story: I doubt you'll be surprised by the revelations, but it's an interesting ride in any case -- especially once the book starts to maintain focus in the second half.

If this book were edited down to, perhaps not remove, but streamline some of the random bits from Frieda's life, then I'd give it more stars. As it stands, it's sadly the first book I've ever played at greater than 1x speed.

Not interested in enduring the rest of the series.

Good twist at the end

Good story overall, there were several times throughout the book I thought it was going a bit cliche, but for the most part I was pleasantly surprised with how the plot progressed. And there was a good twist at the end. Definitely going to be digging into the series

What a twist at the end.

What a twist at the end. I almost missed it. A good read. I’ll certainly try the next in the series.

My new favorite author!

Love it, start off weird and scattered but I’m glad I stayed with it. Lots of twists!

Terrific!

Can't wait for the next book in the Frieda Klein series. My wife was able to predict some of the story, but it all took me by surprise. I like the Frieda character a lot. Beth Chalmers is a terrific reader, perfectly delivering different characters' voices, and the narration parts are done without the changes in volume that make it hard to listen to books when driving. Very good story and performance overall. Definitely worth a credit!

ok, but not great

The story was fairly predictable and I had the ending figured out after the twist appeared (trying not to include spoilers.) The narrator's voice for the male investigator was just all sorts of wrong in my opinion. I kept being surprised I was reminded that he was young, as he sounded like a crabby, snappish, peckish, old man. He was also really hateful to Frieda and if he had talked to me the way he talked to her, there would have been no crime solving together! I was also not impressed with Frieda's less than professional decision making. I am debating on whether to try the second book or not. I am just not looking forward to more of that narration.

It was just OK

I'd had this book on and off my wish list several times -- there was something intriguing about the main character, as she was described. So, I finally decided to bite the bullet and purchase it, hoping for an interesting listen. Sadly, Frieda wasn't very intriguing, and not very likable either........She betrayed her patients' trust and her professional ethics, she is blind to her own psychological issues but overcritical of others', and she's often dismissive of her own friends but seems to have no problem asking patients and acquaintances to help immediately whenever she feels the need. I was not at all invested (or even much interested) in her and what she was doing, including solving the puzzle and finding the missing child.

That said, it wasn't badly written and the plot of the actual mystery was interesting. But that's about the best I can say.

The narration was worse -- the narration always seemed to upbeat and young for the seriousness of the events and the status and age of the characters. Sometimes it almost seemed child-like, even for some of the male characters (what does it say when the deepest and most "masculine" voice with the most serious tone belongs to Frieda's teenaged niece?)

My first Nicci French book

The story started off brisk with the first abduction, but then the story became so slow that I found my mind would wonder instead of wanting to listening. Eventually, I would get back on track and enjoy parts of the story.

One of my pet peeves with audio books is when there is natural break in the story to accommodate a switch of scenario and characters, the narrator should take a significant pause instead of continuing to narrate as if the last sentence of one scene flows into the first sentence of the next scene. To be fair, I don't know if that is the narrators fault or the way the audio book is put together. Anyway, I had to replay parts of the book over and over to get the meaning of all the twists and turns and many different characters.

In the end, I rate the characters well written, but the story was not appealing to me. That is probably more my taste in subject than a flaw of the authors. I do feel that the writers are worth another try and will pick another book of theirs sometime in the near future.