The unheard A novel

Review by Booklist Review

The English writing team of Nicci Gerrard and Sean French delivers another well-plotted winner after What to Do When Someone Dies (2021). Tess is fraught with anxiety when her daughter, Poppy, returns from a visit with her father tired and withdrawn. She begins wetting the bed, acts out viciously at school, massacres her beloved doll, and makes a drawing in black crayon that leads Tess to assume that the girl has witnessed something bad. Perhaps a suicide, or a murder. The police are totally dismissive, and Tess' ex tells her that she is the problem, unable to accept that he is happily settled in with a new, pregnant wife. Tess seeks professional help, but a Fellini-like moment in a café with a young woman sets her off again, and she relentlessly pursues the truth at great risk to her relationships with everyone around her, and to herself. A focused first-person narrative moves the harrowing tale along quickly. There are a few unanswered questions at the end, but fans will devour it nonetheless.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

The anxieties of Londoner Tess Moreau, the narrator of this middling standalone from the pseudonymous French (the Frieda Klein series), about raising her inquisitive three-year-old daughter, Poppy, by herself ramp up after the girl spends a weekend with her father. Normally energetic, Poppy returns sullen, spouting profanities and repeating the word kill while showing her mother a crayon drawing that suggests violence. Tess goes into overdrive trying to figure out if Poppy witnessed a murder and wondering whether Poppy's father, Jason Hallam, involved their daughter in an act of violence. Tess's panic is augmented by her inability to forgive Jason, who, a few months after breaking up with her, married another woman, though he had claimed not to believe in marriage. As Poppy continues to act out, Tess goes to the police, convinced a crime was committed despite no evidence aside from a child's drawing. The plot's premise is solid, but the execution falls short, never rising above a good idea, hampered by weak, undeveloped characters. French (the husband-and-wife writing team of Nicci Gerrard and Sean French) has done better. Agent: Joy Harris, Joy Harris Literary. (Oct.)

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Review by Library Journal Review

Having shut down the popular Frieda Klein series in 2018, French (the wife-and-husband team Nicci Gerrard and Sean French) have gone the stand-alone route. Here, Tess is concerned when daughter Poppy returns from a weekend with her father and his new wife and draws a crude, violent picture, proclaiming "He did kill her." Poppy's father insists that it was a placid visit, but Tess is not convinced. With a 50,000-copy paperback and 30,000-copy hardcover first printing.

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