Nicci French Books

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Nicci French is the writing name used by husband and wife publishing team Sean French and Nicci Gerard. As is obvious, their pseudonym is made up of a combination of their forename and surname. The couple married in 1990, and started writing and publishing books together in 1997. However, Sean French had written and had published four books prior to the release of the debut novel of Nicci French. Nicci French is best known for the Frieda Klein series of novels, which are of psychological thriller genre.

Authors Nicci Gerrard and Sean French write as Nicci French and write psychological thrillers together. Nicci Gerrard was born on June 10, 1958 and grew up in Worcestershire with her pair of sisters and a brother. Sean French was born May 28, 1959 in Bristol, and has two younger brothers. Even though the couple both went to Oxford University, studying English literature, they never met. At Oxford, Sean won a contest for young writers that was organized by Vogue; he would start a career as a journalist. He started writing for New Statesman in 1987 and finished writing for them in 2000. She would marry someone while she founded a magazine for women and then became a journalist that worked freelance. Both worked at the New Statesman (Nicci as editor, and Sean wrote a weekly column), and it was here that they finally met each other. They got married in the year 1990, and moved to Suffolk in East Anglia, England in the year 1999. Together, the couple has two children (Hadley and Molly); Nicci has two kids, from when she was married the first time (Edgar and Anna).

Nicci Gerrard was born in 1958, while her husband, Sean French was born a year later on May 28th, 1959. Nicci Gerrard spent her younger years of Worcester, where she attended The Alice Ottley School, and then went to read English Literature at Oxford University, before going on to Sheffield University where she earned an MPhil in 1986. Sean French went to high school in London, before also going to Oxford University, where he also read English Literature. However, while at Oxford University, Gerrard and French did not become acquainted.

Gerrard moved into a career of journalism, after spending time as a teacher of literature in both the United Kingdom and also the United States. Gerrard freelanced, after founding her own magazine for women. She eventually moved on to work for the New Statesman, where she was, at one time, the editor, but moved on to work for The Observer. Sean French also moved into the field of journalism, and wrote for the New Statesman from 1987 until 2000. It was while at the New Statesman that Gerrard and French eventually met, and then eventually married in 1990.

Sean French found some success writing on his own, having written two biographies, one of Patrick Hamilton and one of Bridget Bardot, as well as two standalone novels, The Imaginary Monkey and also The Dream of Dreams. However, it wasn’t really until he started writing with his wife under the pen name of Nicci French, that Sean French’s career in fiction writing really took off.

In 1997, the couple had their first book published under the name Nicci French. The book was called The Memory Game and is revolves around Jane Martello, who is a women in her middle-age going through a divorce, as well as distancing herself from a family she has known since her younger years. When the body of her sister-in-law is discovered in the garden of her home after around 20 years, things start to get even worse for Jane and her private life. Jane must go through psychiatric counselling to help get to the bottom of this mystery and solve who exactly did kill her childhood friend.

The couple then followed The Memory Game up with 11 more standalone novels, including Killing Me Softly, The Red Room, Land of the Living and Secret Smile, which the BBC based a television series on. However, in 2011, the couple published the book Blue Monday in 2011, which was to be the first book in their Frieda Klein series of novels.

Tuesday’s Gone was the follow up to Blue Monday, and it was released in 2013. The same year, Waiting for Wednesday was released. Thursday’s Child followed in 2014, then Friday on My Mind, which was published in 2015.

Together, the couple has written the “Frieda Klein” series and some stand alone work. The novels are named after the days of the week. The first novel that they wrote together was “The Memory Game” that was released in the year 1997.

NICCI FRENCH BOOKS INTO MOVIES

“Secret Smile” was the basis of a British television series.

BEST NICCI FRENCH BOOKS

For those readers looking to get into novels by Nicci French, this section will help with that. It will go over the novels “Blue Monday”, “Tuesday’s Gone”, and “Waiting for Wednesday”.

Blue Monday: This is the first novel in the “Frieda Klein” series and was released in the year 2011. Matthew Farraday (who is five years old) is abducted, and it sparks national outcry and the police hunt for him desperately. His picture hits the papers, and a psychotherapist (Frieda Klein) is troubled because one of her patients has been telling her dreams where he hungers for a child. He can describe this child in absolute perfect detail. The child looks exactly like Matthew.

Detective Chief Inspector Karlsson does not really listen to anything Frieda has to say, until a link is shown in a child abduction that went unsolved two decades ago. He gets Frieda to talk to the victim’s sister, hoping she can come up with something. Frieda is at the center to track this kidnapper.

It is not a physical race. She must do her running through psychological channels, especially this one’s mind to find out about Matthew’s location.

Tuesday’s Gone: This is the second novel in the “Frieda Klein” series and was released in the year 2013. It was just a routine home visit, but the London social worker does not see anything routine. Instead, the social worker sees her client serving tea to a corpse that is naked and decomposing. There are no clues to who the man is, and Karlsson calls on Frieda for assistance. The body, she finds, belongs to a man named Robert Poole. Who was an expert con man.

Frieda cannot help but feel that the past is not quite done with her just yet. Was Poole killed to get Frieda involved in the case? If that is true, is she the next victim?

Waiting for Wednesday: This is the third novel in the “Frieda Klein” series and was released in the year 2013. Frieda Klein finds that she has a connection with the case that Karlsson is working on. She does not work with Ted anymore, not officially, but her niece befriends Ted (whose mother is Ruth Lennox). It puts her in an awkward spot, someone that both Ted and Karlsson confide in.

It comes out that Ruth was leading something of a secret life, and her family decides to shut everyone out. It makes Karlsson need her help more that ever before. Frieda is currently distracted. She survived someone trying to kill her, and she tries to keep control. A patient says something that rings a mental alarm, which makes her chase down a killer that has long gone unnoticed and uncaught. Or is it really? It could be something that comes from her mind getting more and more fragile.

As she well knows, when you get closer to a killer, you are getting into a dark place that there may not be a way out of.

Nicci French FAQs

Q: What nationality is Nicci French?

A: Nicci French is the pseudonym of two British novelists, Nicci Gerrard and Sean French.

Q: What is the name of Nicci French’s first book?

A: The first book that was written by Nicci French was The Memory Game, which was published in 1997.

When Does The Next Nicci French book come out?

The next book by Nicci French is The Last Days of Kira Mullan and will be released on March, 4th 2025. It is the newest book in the Maud O’Connor Series.

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