Nicci French used to be one of my favourite mystery crime authors. I still have a few unread titles on my bookshelf, so I thought to revisit this author. Maybe I have aged, or my palate has changed, as it has turned out to be an average read for me now.

Tuesday's Gone is the second book from the Freida Klein's series. I have not read any from this series and it can be read as a standalone as I didn't feel the gap. It somehow reminds me of the many female detective series like Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta or Ann Cleeve's Vera Stanhope, though on a different setting / premise. It definitely suited as a TV miniseries with the way it was written with all the extra fillers / subplots. Hence, I just couldn't wait to finish the book, to get to the end. The ending though, was kinda confusing for me as it sort of did a round robin and then the killer was found... so much for the anticipation. I do think that it will pan out nicely on TV though.

Anyway, there are many new cozy mysteries popping up, I am spoilt for choice now! So, I plan to pick up books from my TBR piles on and off with the hopes to finish it all and not hoard any more books *fingers crossed* So, here's 1 of the many... ( )

I thought the first in this series, Blue Monday was very good. Tuesday's Gone is even better.

Frightening to learn how often police take 'the path of least resistance' to close a case inadequately investigated. Happens more often if victims and suspects are poor, elderly, ill, defenseless, homeless, drug-addicted or criminal.

We learn more about why Frieda Klein, a dedicated and intuitive psychoanalyst, is compelled to analyze and help people who are troubled and distressed. And how deeply she understands people's motivations, thoughts and desires; and how to draw them out so she can help.

This series is clearly an improvement on Jonathan Kellerman's Alex Delaware series in which a psychologist assists his friend, LAPD Detective Milo Sturgis. I love that French's books are more layered and nuanced than the frenzied, over-wrought, and violence-obssessed Kellerman series.

Excellent read!

Another novel with Frieda Klein as the main character.

Again the author uses London almost as a character and introduces the reader to interesting places and sides of this city - nice idea and definately a plus, compared to most crime novels with interchangeable locations. All main characters from the first book reappear again in this novel, some characters which are only briefly mentioned in book are expanded in this second book.

The plot of this book is better than the first, more coherent and believable, despite its "surprising twists". The loose ends from book one are picked up as well and the story of the twins and the still missing victim continues.

I really liked this novel (in my opinion it is better than the first) - and I would have liked it even more, if I read the books in chronological order. I am looking forward to Wednesday. ( )

Wonderful book! A bit of a surprise ending. Can't wait for the sequel ( )

Dark and intriguing. Protagonist is a conflicted, disturbed psychotherapist. After two books you still aren't told where all her neuroses originated. Story is engaging, as are Freida and Karlsson. Mystery is ambiguous as the reader is often blind-sided by a revelation about a character foretold in a shadow. Only looking back do you see how it could be so. Gets a little bogged down in the personal thoughts of two "crazy" people. I don't need to know what it sounds like to be inside their heads; I can look inside my own mess. ( )

This is the second book in the series featuring psychotherapist Dr Frieda Klein. It immediately draws the reader in with a narrative about a social worker visiting one of her clients, Michelle Doyce. Michelle lives in a very ugly part of London and is a mental health patient who has been released into the community. When the social worker discovers a badly decomposing body in her apartment, the twin forces of DCI Karlsson and Dr. Frieda Klein are brought in to try to make some sense of the incoherent Michelle.

As the police try to discover the identity of the corpse, and why and how he ended up dead, there are two other stories running on the side, seemingly unconnected. Frieda is not happy with the way Michelle is being treated and tries to solve the identity of the dead man herself. Meanwhile, Frieda starts to suspect that there are unresolved problems with her last case.

The well written mystery in this book slowly simmers but then becomes quite compelling. Frieda is a truly fascinating character. She's extremely intelligent, but she also has everyday problems that she is trying to deal with. She can be very annoying too. The supporting characters in this book are some of the best I've ever read. While this could be read as a standalone novel, I highly recommend reading the first book in the series, Blue Monday, to understand some of the threads this book references. ( )

I am well and truly hooked on this series at only two books in (wait...make that three books in - I just remembered that I started off this series with like the 6th book)! My one regret is that I waited so long after finishing the first book before grabbing this one. I can already tell that this is a series where things that happen from the first book will continue to play an important role in future books in this series. This book had such a creepy premise with a woman with mental issues having tea with a dead man. How could you not want to read this one based off of that premise? I was intrigued instantly by that summary! This book was a slow build whereas I remember blowing through the first book (actually I think I read that one in just a day). I loved that it was a slow burn though because I took my time with it and was just so completely immersed in Frieda's world. Her character is SO intriguing to me - I hope that we continue to learn more about her background as the series goes on! I also enjoyed the fact that we got to see all of the other characters that we met in the previous book. This is definitely a series that I would recommend reading in order. There are major things at play (cannot say more than that) in this book that are carrying over from Blue Monday. And the ending of this book - let me tell you what - I didn't see that coming whatsoever! I'm so glad that I already have the next book waiting on my shelves. This is a series to check out if you haven't already in my humble opinion!

Overall, I enjoyed my time with this book immensely! I loved that this one was a bit slower so that I ended up taking my time with it. I'm really loving the characters in this series and especially Frieda herself. I'm so intrigued by the way this book ended - I'm itching to grab that next book (especially just thinking about it all over again). I would recommend this series (start with that 1st book please) to mystery lovers, those readers who enjoy a suspenseful read, and those readers that really enjoy character focused mysteries. More readers need to find this series! I can easily recommend this one!

Bottom Line: This series has become a standout series for me!

Disclosure: I checked this book out from my local library. Honest thoughts are my own. ( )

Nicci French is my speed.

Not that I'm addicted by any means (as I surely would be if I tried the pharmaceutical).

It kept me awake. Honestly, if you knew how few things do that, you'd understand why that impresses me.

I read this in a day. Why a book like this has to be 450 pages long is beyond me, but they zip along, the complaint is by the bye.

I haven't read the first of this series and I don't think I will read any more either. But I object to this business of suckering in the reader with story lines that go on and on.

And on.

Let not this review suffer the same way. ( )

Nicci French is my speed.

Not that I'm addicted by any means (as I surely would be if I tried the pharmaceutical).

It kept me awake. Honestly, if you knew how few things do that, you'd understand why that impresses me.

I read this in a day. Why a book like this has to be 450 pages long is beyond me, but they zip along, the complaint is by the bye.

I haven't read the first of this series and I don't think I will read any more either. But I object to this business of suckering in the reader with story lines that go on and on.

And on.

Let not this review suffer the same way. ( )

Also the second volume of the Frieda Klein series was thrilling from the first to the last moment.
After a man was found dead in the home of a mentally ill woman, DCI Karlsson decided to include Frieda as a co-worker. Frieda herself does not want to work anymore, the aftermath of the first case is still present. Even the detectives around Karlsson do not want to have Frieda with them. But as luck would have it, Frieda can not refrain from investigating and gets more and more involved in the investigations. She encounters fraud, exploitation of unstable people and greed. ( )

TUESDAY’S GONE: A FRIEDA KLEIN MYSTERY. It is Book 2 in the series written by Nicci French. Nicci French is the pseudonym of English husband and wife team, Nicci Gerrard and Sean French, who write psychological thrillers together.
I am glad that I am reading the series in order, as many of the same characters and plot points from BLUE MONDAY (Book 1) reappear in a very sinister way.
I am getting more involved in Frieda’s personality and am very involved in her solitary, night time walks around London. Her knowledge of London’s history, especially of its rivers, is fascinating. The book has an exceptional ‘sense of place’ and one just soaks up the London atmosphere and quirks. TUESDAY’S GONE map (and Frieda’s walks) focus on the River Tyburn as it winds its way past Hampstead Heath, through Regent’s Park, eventually making its way into the Thames at Pimlico. The River Tyburn is one of London’s ‘lost rivers’ which flow mainly underground. Fascinating. I have been reading non-stop about these ‘lost rivers’. BLUE MONDAY’s map shows the meanderings of the River Fleet.
p.243 (Frieda) “Sometimes I think rivers and streams make people uncomfortable. They’re wet, they move, they bubble up out of the ground, they flood, they dry up. Better just to put them out of sight.”
TUESDAY’S GONE opens with a social worker making a routine visit to client Michelle Doyce, and finds her serving tea and biscuits to a naked, very dead, decomposing corpse. Clueless as to the corpse’s identity, DCI Karlsson asks Frieda for help.
I would describe TUESDAY’S GONE as very suspenseful, gritty, intelligent, interesting, detailed and thrilling.
Freida Klein is an excellent character - a brilliant psychotherapist, realistic, blunt, always thoughtful.
A thoroughly enjoyable thriller - a Five Star read. *****
I can’t wait for Book 3 - the interesting characters, plots and ‘lost rivers’. ( )

Tuesday’s Gone by husband and wife team Nicci French continues their series featuring psychotherapist Frieda Klein. This is a series that needs to be read in order, as there are certain story-lines that continue from book to book. In this outing, Freida is helping the police with the murder of an unidentified corpse who was found in the house of a mentally ill woman. When it turns out that the corpse belonged to a charming con man, the police find themselves scrambling to find his victims.

Still haunted by the events that occurred in Blue Monday, Frieda continues to work with the police on this new case even though one colleague suggests that perhaps she is in danger of losing sight of whether she is a therapist or a detective. Frieda herself seems to have an uncanny ability to piece together the stories of various witnesses and suspects and arrive at the correct answer.

Tuesday’s Gone is another clever and enthralling entry into this exciting series and I am enjoying getting to know the many layers of Frieda Klein. Aided by a cast of engaging supporting characters, and the author’s skillful plotting Tuesday’s Gone is another dark, insightful thriller. ( )

Tuesday’s Gone by Nicci French: This second book in the Frieda Klein series was better than Blue Monday (#1) in my opinion. More character development and the mystery was more intriguing to me. The London based psychotherapist, Frieda Klein, reminds me loosely of the Jessica Fletcher character from TV series Murder, She Wrote. Loosely, as I said, because when our main character is involved, a murder is going to take center stage.

I like Frieda even though she isn’t what one would describe as a warm personality. Perhaps you have to be completely in control and compartmentalize your life if your profession is psychotherapist. Yet there are qualities about her personality that I admire.

We have a rousing start with unbalanced woman named Michelle serving tea and buns to a decaying corpse she has propped up on her sofa. The police, specifically Inspector Mal Karlsson, involve Frieda as the woman in question may be a murderer or know something about the murder of the man in her home as she dragged him home from an alleyway. There isn’t any identification to be found but, in a series of improbable events, Frieda Klein is set on the path to discovering his identity. Early on in the story we learn the man’s name is Robert Poole. More mystery about that later but to mention it would reveal a spoiler so, enough said on that now. “Robert” is indeed a fascinating character.

Robert Poole made people “feel attended to” which is something most of us want. We like when someone listens to us, seems to care about what we are saying, our concerns and our interests.

Characters from the previous book show up and as I mentioned, more character development in this book. I have now read 3 of the 8 books in the series and look forward to the final installment when it’s published. I think that’s called Day of the Dead.

Food is mentioned here and there.

Two whiskies and two packets of crisps. He took a seat at the table and opened both packages. “I got salt and vinegar and cheese and onion. I didn’t know which you liked.”
“Neither, really,” said Frieda.
“You probably don’t like pubs either,” said Karlsson.
“It’s better than the police station.”

Frieda and Reuben talking over the phone. She asks him to put potatoes in the oven for baking so they can have those for dinner. But he hadn’t put potatoes in the oven, he’d made a greasy, rich lasagna, garlic bread and a green salad.
Frieda on a date with Harry at a Pop-up restaurant:

“I am Inga,” said the woman, “And I am from Denmark. My husband Paul is from Morocco. We cook together. I will bring you wine and food and there is no choice. No allergies, no fads?”

They were served a plate of pickled fish with sour cream, smoked meats, yogurts, savory pastries and wine.

Evidently a pop-up restaurant serves a handful of people and they pop up in various locations, serve dinners and one day they relocate.

Josef bakes a honey cake with cinnamon and ginger.
A dinner party at Oliva’s place – Salmon fillets cooked in pastry, meringues for dessert, lots of wine.
Yvette hands out packets of sandwiches, ‘Cheese and celery for you, tuna and cucumber for you and chicken for me.”
Frieda and Chloe eat at a Tapas restaurant – They ordered squid, roasted bell peppers, a Spanish omelet and a plate of spring greens.
I had quite a bit of choice for my food inspiration and almost made lasagna, because it sounded so good. But I went with Tapas.

Check out the food photos at Novel Meals

https://novelmeals.wordpress.com/2018/02/08/tuesdays-gone-by-nicci-french-with-c... ( )

Events in this volume follow pretty much immediately after those of Blue Monday. There's a brief recap to refresh your memory if you're reading them a year apart as they were published, and again in the next one, but I'd strongly recommend gobbling them all up back-to-back.

Freida Klein is a complicated character. She's amazingly private, but not cold, and other people appreciate her kindness, sensitivity, and good advice. In her orbit there's a sister-in-law and teenaged niece, her mentor, the clinic's manager, a former patient, the friends with the cafe she relies on so heavily for all her meals, the therapist she is mentoring, the Ukrainian builder, the lover who left her for a job in the US, and now various people from Scotland Yard.

She has a strong network, but she's not in the habit of asking others for help. And now, after the successes and failures of the case she helped on, she's having a bad time coping. And then there's another case centered on a woman with profound mental issues.

As mysteries I quite like these books. They're not exploitative of their victims and the bad guys are never one-dimensional. Through Klein the reader is given a deeply empathetic look at the lives of people who've been overlooked, neglected, forgotten. The format of the series means that the reader keeps abreast of events after the police are finished detecting: there's both emotional and legal ramifications to follow up on.

There is also a very sad tone to the books. Klein is an insomniac, prone to walking the streets of London when her mind is restless, but it's not a hopelessness in the face of the horrible things humanity does to itself. Even where it isn't possible to save everyone, or prevent violence, it is possible to help people, and Klein doesn't stop trying. Despite the book's long cold winter, there will be better, warmer, times ahead.

Library copy ( )

This is the second book in the series featuring psychotherapist Dr Frieda Klein. It immediately draws the reader in with a narrative about a social worker visiting one of her clients, Michelle Doyce. Michelle lives in a very ugly part of London and is a mental health patient who has been released into the community. When the social worker discovers a badly decomposing body in her apartment, the twin forces of DCI Karlsson and Dr. Frieda Klein are brought in to try to make some sense of the incoherent Michelle.

As the police try to discover the identity of the corpse, and why and how he ended up dead, there are two other stories running on the side, seemingly unconnected. Frieda is not happy with the way Michelle is being treated and tries to solve the identity of the dead man herself. Meanwhile, Frieda starts to suspect that there are unresolved problems with her last case.

The well written mystery in this book slowly simmers but then becomes quite compelling. Frieda is a truly fascinating character. She's extremely intelligent, but she also has everyday problems that she is trying to deal with. She can be very annoying too. The supporting characters in this book are some of the best I've ever read. While this could be read as a standalone novel, I highly recommend reading the first book in the series, Blue Monday, to understand some of the threads this book references. ( )

3.5 stars

I'm really enjoying the way the writing team Nicci French are developing this character/series. We see how Frieda develops both personally & professionally; we see how the people in her life move in & out if her life, forwards & backwards in their own; and we have an arch villain who has travelled through 2 installments of the series so far.

There is so much to like about this story: the breadth of characters; the uniqueness of the crime; the things we can never fully know.

But there is one down-side, which kept this from being 4 or 5 stars: the pacing. It's uneven. I put this book down to eat dinner. When I came back to it, the killers had been caught... & I didn't know the set-up was even in place. It was like tuning into a TV program 15 years ago, when you had to walk away from it and only got back for the last segment. Except I didn't skip any parts of the book. It was just poorly executed. Although... It did have the effect of making me say, "Huh? Who did it? What?" :)

I look forward to Waiting for Wednesday. ( )

The second book in the series featuring Frida Klein and I loved it just as much as the first one. How many times can you say, "I did'nt see that coming?" Fantastic! At times I was a bit confused, but, without giving anything away, once things play out, it all makes sense. I also really like the descriptions of London and the random historical fats that are worked into the story; they really add to the mood and tone of the book. Next up...Waiting for Wednesday! ( )

Tuesday’s Gone by Nicci French is a 2012 Penguin Group publication.

“Monday’s like jumping into ice-cold water, but you get a shock of excitement. On Tuesday you’re still in the water but the shock has worn off and you’re just cold.”

This second book in the Frieda Klein series finds the psychologist involved in a disturbing case centered around a mentally ill woman who had been keeping a dead man in her residence. When it becomes clear the man was murdered, Frieda officially becomes a consultant with the police and soon finds herself involved with clever con game, while at the same time, she slowly begins to realize that the last case she worked is far from resolved and now that she’s discovered the truth, she is most likely in danger.

I had a little trouble getting into the first book of this series, but since I already had the second book checked out from my library, I decided to keep going with it. I’m glad I did, because I enjoyed this one better, and found the writing to be a lot more fluid.

The story is slow moving at times and often it feels as though nothing is really happening, but Frieda’s personality really begins to take shape, and her relationships with her friends and family were fleshed out more, giving the reader better idea of what makes Frieda tick.

The murder case is a little complex, very puzzling, and I have to admit, I was I pretty surprised by the outcome. I was also relieved when Frieda finally got clued in about a troubling thread the first book left hanging and can see how that story will continue to weave itself into further installments. That being said, I highly recommend reading this series in order.

I am hoping Frieda will find a way to continue on with her consulting position, and will finally find the proof she needs to put a murderer away before she becomes his next victim.

So, overall, I feel like this series could grow on me more as we go along, so, “Waiting on Wednesday” is queued up and ready to go. Should be interesting. ( )

This is a well written character study that is also a mystery. I read it over a 3 day period. That indicates I had a problem putting it down. My only negative comment about the book is, for me, it was "dark". Although I could not put it down - when I did I found myself feel depressed. Strangely enough, I would recommend it as something to read that is a little different. ( )

This is a good book Frieda Klein assists the Police after the body of a strange man is found in the flat of a mentally disabled woman. Its not a straight forward case. Frieda wont settle for any loose ends and keeps digging. It turns out the murdered man was conning people out of money. A brother and sister both professional people befriend Frieda she is suspicious and discovers it was them that murdered the con man so they could get his ill gotten gains. Frieda nearly dies at the end of the book. We never discover who the con man actually was. ( )

"Tuesday's Gone" (TG) by Nicci French is their second book (after "Blue Monday", BM) in what is to be an 8 book series. "Waiting for Wednesday" is due April, 2014 in the US. I enjoyed the first book in the series, also rated it 4 stars, but wasn't sure I would continue with it because I felt there were too many improbable plot turns, and I had my issues with the protagonist, Frieda Klein, a London based psychotherapist. TG begins with the decaying remains of a con artist (Robert Poole) found in the apartment of a mentally unbalanced woman. Frieda becomes involved when the police ask for her help in getting the woman to speak sensibly about events leading up to Poole's death. A number of his victims are quickly identified and interviewed. Concurrently, there are some threads left over from BM, and Frieda's attention is also drawn there, back to the survivors of that episode, mainly Alan's widow and Dean's victim/wife. Both have issues with Frieda. And Frieda's BM romance resurfaces with the temporary return of her ex from the US. As the story unfolds, the threads from BM grow stronger and what we have seems to be both a series and a serial. A series in the sense of ongoing characters and links back to previous books, and a serial in the sense of being left with a bit of a cliff hanger to draw us back. It seems that the Alan and Dean case may weave its way through a number of books, perhaps the whole series. Bottomline, I enjoyed this book a bit more than the first, I'll continue the series for now, I still have some issues with Frieda - she can be a stick-in- the-mud and know-it-all, the story again has some improbable twists,and I may get bored quickly with this Alan/Dean thing but we'll see. ( )

The whodunit aspect is not much of a mystery, but everything else about the book is so finely made. ( )

Wat een tegenvallend tweede deel. Natuurlijk leest het weer als een trein en zit er af en toe spanning in, maar het einde stelde me erg teleur. En dat na het zo verrassende einde van het Maandag-boek. Het is een cliffhanger, dit einde, maar niet eentje waardoor je gaat uitkijken naar het volgende deel. Ik haak hier waarschijnlijk af. ( )

She pressed her head harder against the door, feeling her brain working, her thoughts hissing. She couldn’t stop herself: the past was seeping into the present and there were things she needed to know. She wondered why she was doing this. Why was she going back? – from Tuesday’s Gone, page 62 -

Frieda Klein still carries the guilt of a young woman’s murder and the nagging suspicion that the killer still walks free. When Detective Chief Inspector Karlsson once again calls upon Frieda to help unravel the mystery of a man’s death, Frieda is a bit reticent. But when she hears about the mentally ill woman who has been accused of the murder, she is curious. Robert Poole, a con man with a shadowy past, has been found naked and dead and covered with flies, while Michelle Doyce attempts to serve him afternoon tea. It is a bizarre and convoluted case. Who is Robert? And who would want to kill him? One thing Frieda is certain of, Michelle had nothing to do with the crime. As the pieces of the puzzle begin to come together, Frieda begins to sense a dark threat to her own life. Has her past come back to haunt her?

The second book in the Frieda Klein series is a page turner. Once again Nicci French creates tension and mystery where anyone could be a suspect in murder. I read the first book in this new series and was hooked. Frieda Klein is a complex character who struggles with intimacy and love for herself while she wants to rescue others. She is a compelling protagonist who invites readers into her world and keeps them there until the last page is turned.

She was in the room and yet somehow standing back from it. She gave you her full attention, and yet at the same time you felt she had a core of isolation, of separateness. It made her a kind of magnet. - from Tuesday’s Gone, page 303 -

Although Tuesday’s Gone could stand alone, I believe readers would be best served by starting with Blue Monday before cracking the spine on the second book. Nicci French provides enough background to remind readers of what happened in the first book, and then closes the novel with a hook to lead into book number three (released this month in the UK). I will be eager to get a copy of Waiting for Wednesday when it makes its US debut because now that I have become a part of Freida Klein’s world, I don’t want to leave!

Tuesday’s Gone is a psychological thriller which has terrific characters and a well-plotted mystery that had me wondering how it would all end. The book is atmospheric, capturing the mood of England’s largest city and the flow of the Thames River to create a novel which fully immerses the reader in the back alleys and run down tenements of London. Unlike the first book in the series, Tuesday’s Gone never flagged for me, keeping up a relentless pace and unbearable tension until the end.

Readers who love suspense-thrillers that delve deeply into the psychological, as well as those who like their books well plotted, will want to read Tuesday’s Gone.

Highly recommended. ( )

Book Review & Giveaway: As we mentioned when we reviewed Blue Monday, Book #1 in the Frieda Klein series, bestselling author Nicci French is actually the pseudonym of an English couple, Nicci Gerrard and Sean French. Together they have melded their minds to become one of today’s leading crime fiction authors.

Tuesday’s Gone is Book #2 in the series. While it can be read as a stand-alone novel, I’d recommend reading them in order. A link to our review of Blue Monday is at the end of this review. If you like psychological thrillers, smart accidental detective stories, or crime thrillers, you can’t beat this series. After all, the lead character is a London psychotherapist who the police call in when they’ve got a particularly bizarre case.
Read the rest of my review and enter our giveaway at http://popcornreads.com/?p=5851. ( )