THURSDAY'S CHILDREN

The abiding impression of Thursday’s Children is the courage of a woman returning to the Suffolk town of her roots which she left as a girl 23 years ago after being raped.

Frieda Klein, a London psychotherapist, is approached by an old acquaintance with a request for help regarding her disturbed daughter. It is this girl’s tragedy that drives Frieda back to her home town to discover a rapist turned killer. The plot is simple, her personal investigation intricate as she trawls an extended circle of former classmates, their current partners, children and parents, one-time teachers and cops. All are clearly delineated, but monopolising the action are Frieda’s friends: Josef the Ukrainian builder, Reuben, her analyst, Karlsson, a cop. Josef is delightful: like an adorable cat (and loved to distraction by the passionate Eva) he is a man who cannot be possessed – like Frieda herself who walks away from a smothering lover.

 A love story then as much as a crime novel and exquisite in both genre, the dialogue so exact, so personal to the speaker, that you tend to skim the narrative in order to hear the people talk.

A splendid book: a beacon in the current crop. There is rape, murder, betrayal and poisonous jealousy but these are balanced by a powerful vein of compassion and good manners. This is the fourth in a series but Frieda and her friends are so well-drawn that, like Chee and Wexford and Brunetti with their orbiting stars, we need to find them again. The final revelation is that Nicci French is a collaboration. How did two people achieve such delicate unity?