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The first 50 pages of Nicci French's LAND OF THE LIVING are amongst the most terrifying, chilling passages I have ever read. Nicci French has written nothing short of a harrowing, enthralling thriller in the best tradition of PRESUMED INNOCENT and SILENCE OF THE LAMBS.
Abbie Devereaux awakes to total darkness. She awakes not knowing who she is, where she is, or how she got there. She awakes to the realization that she is tied, gagged and blindfolded. Her memory is failing her; she is on the verge of knowing what has happened to her, but she can't … quite … grasp … it: "There were other things at the edge, clamoring to be admitted to my brain. Bad things. Restrained. In the dark. Hooded. Ridiculous. Could it be a joke? I remembered stories of students. They get you paralytically drunk, put on a train at Aberdeen. You wake up in London dressed only in your underwear with a fifty-pence piece in your hand. Everyone will jump out in a minute, pull off the blindfold, and shout 'April fool.' We'll all laugh. But was it April? I remembered cold. Had summer been? Was summer still to come? But of course a summer had always been and there was always another summer to come."
What has happened to Abbie is no joke. She has been abducted and is being held by a nameless, faceless man intent on killing her --- and she is not his first victim. He regales her with stories of the other women he has kept, kept to the point that they completely lost their senses, and then he killed them. Abbie tries desperately to hold on to her sanity; she won't let him break her. He is patient and is in no rush to do her in. But she is patient, too. And in a moment of heavenly luck, she escapes.
Now her real ordeal begins. She must convince the police, her doctors, her family and her friends that she has been kidnapped and held against her will. The moments, days really, leading up to her abduction reveal themselves over time to be radically different from the bits and pieces she remembers. French offers tidbits, morsels, and teases that keep one reading and wondering. Her abusive boyfriend has a new girlfriend. Why is he no longer with Abbie? She flitted from friend to friend, seeking comfort and help. How come no one remembers where she was last? Her job is no longer. What happened to destroy her career? And she has a mysterious new roommate that she never sees. Who is this person, and where is she?
As if seeking the answers to all these questions isn't enough, she must solve the crime that has been perpetrated against her, because no one else is willing to help. And her abductor is close on her trail. Need I say more?
--- Reviewed by Roberta O'Hara
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