Alan Judd has written the Bookends column in the latest issue of the Spectator. Here it is for readers of this blog:
I like books with weather and there’s plenty in this one, all bad, which is even better. Set in London during a cold winter, Blue Monday is the first of a new series for Nicci French, the successful husband and wife author team.
The central character is a consultant psychoanalyst called Frieda Klein, and the plot revolves around identity and identity transfer. The first 40-odd pages are a kaleidoscope of scenes and points of view, which make it read as if written for the small screen (Nicci French has been successful there, too), but once we settle down with Frieda the story picks up and gathers pace all the way to the end.
It features missing children, past and present, merging the two in the minds of the unwitting characters.
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