Beneath the Skin

The Washington Post called her last book, Killing Me Softly, "undeniably fascinating." People praised its "peak psychological suspense." Now internationally acclaimed author Nicci French proves herself the equal of top thriller writers on either side of the Atlantic with a chilling tale of three women linked by a sociopath who wants to know them intimately, and to love them...to death.

Beneath the Skin They are three very different women: Zoe, the pretty blond schoolteacher...Jenny, the former hand model turned model mother and wife...and Nadia, the irresponsible free spirit who entertains at children's parties. They live in different parts of London, grapple with different problems, harbor different dreams.

But when they are targeted by a sadistic killer, they become sisters beneath the skin. Suddenly they all share the same dread when they approach their doorsteps, fall victim to the same rising panic as darkness falls. For someone is sending them threatening letters, macabre notes that let each one know she is being watched, studied...

Their pursuer is clever and coldly calculating, a sexual predator who takes pleasure in each woman's pain, feeds on each one's fears, and glories when their lives are turned upside down. At first the police -- and even the women -- refuse to take the threats seriously. But eventually Zoe, Jenny, and Nadia each come to the horrifying realization that there will be no white knight riding to the rescue.

Each is on her own, as someone exposes each one's secrets, relationships strain and shatter, and each woman finds herself scrutinized by the police as they search for a suspect who could be anyone: a neighbor, a lover, a co-worker, even an absolute stranger. In Killing Me Softly author Nicci French showed us how one person's passion for another could lead to fearsome consequences.

In BENEATH THE SKIN, a story even more terrifying, she once more explores the dark landscape of obsession.
"When she laughs, she makes a pealing sound, like a doorbell. If I told her I loved her, she would laugh at me like that. She would think I was not serious. That is what women do. They turn what is serious and big into a small thing, a joke.

Love is not a joke. It is a matter of life and death. One day, soon, she will understand that." Zoe, a pretty blond schoolteacher. Jenny, a former hand model turned model wife and mother. Nadia, an irrepressible free spirit who entertains at children's parties. Three women living in different parts of London, grappling with different problems, sheltering different dreams--their lives and narratives linked only by the singular madness of a sadistic stalker.

As they move slowly through the sweltering heat of summer, someone is sending these women letters that let each know she is being watched, studied, and loved from afar--even unto death. 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 realization that neither they nor anyone else will prevent this killer from destroying them. French skillfully 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, tha