Nicci French: Blue Monday (USA 2013)

From the Publisher:
FRIEDA KLEIN IS A PSYCHOTHERAPIST AND INSOMNIAC
who believes that the world is a messy, uncontrollable place. She spends her nights walking along the ancient rivers that lie beneath modern London. Her life is one of austerity, personal integrity, and order.

When five-year-old Matthew Farraday is abducted, Frieda cannot ignore the fact that he perfectly matches a boy one of her patients de-scribes from his fantasies. Haunted by dreams in which he hungers for a child, Alan Dekker is desperate. But would he steal one?

Before long, Frieda finds herself serving as the reluctant sidekick of the acerbic Detective Chief Inspector Karlsson, at the center of a frantic race to find the kidnapper. The first in a remarkable new series, Blue Monday draws readers into a troubled world in which the terrors of the mind spill over into real life.

Nicci French: Blue Monday. The First Frieda Klein Mystery. Penguin, ISBN: 9780143122722 (March, 2013), 322 p., $16.00.

Nicci French: Blue Monday (USA 2012)

From the Publisher:
The stunning first book in a new series of psychological thrillers introducing an unforgettable London psychotherapist
Frieda Klein is a solitary, incisive psychotherapist who spends her sleepless nights walking along the ancient rivers that have been forced underground in modern London. She believes that the world is a messy, uncontrollable place, but what we can control is what is inside our heads. This attitude is reflected in her own life, which is an austere one of refuge, personal integrity, and order.

The abduction of five-year-old Matthew Farraday provokes a national outcry and a desperate police hunt. And when his face is splashed over the newspapers, Frieda cannot ignore the coincidence: one of her patients has been having dreams in which he has a hunger for a child. A red-haired child he can describe in perfect detail, a child the spitting image of Matthew. She finds herself in the center of the investigation, serving as the reluctant sidekick of the chief inspector.

Drawing readers into a haunting world in which the terrors of the mind have spilled over into real life, Blue Monday introduces a compelling protagonist and a chilling mystery that will appeal to readers of dark crime fiction and fans of In Treatment and The Killing.

Nicci French: Blue Monday. A Novel. Viking / Pamela Dorman Books, ISBN: 9780670023363 (March, 2012), 322 p., $26.95.

Nicci French: Blue Monday (UK 2012)

From the Publisher:
The first in a killer new series introducing Frieda Klein.
Monday: five-year old Matthew Faraday is abducted. His face is splashed across newspaper front pages. His parents and the police are desperate. Can anyone help find their little boy before it is too late?

Psychotherapist Frieda Klein just might know something.

One of her patients describes dreams of seizing a boy who is the spitting image of Matthew. Convinced at first the police will dismiss her fears out of hand, Frieda reluctantly finds herself drawn into the heart of the case. A previous abduction, from twenty years ago, suggests a new lead - one that only Frieda, an expert on the minds of disturbed individuals, can uncover.

Struggling to make sense of this terrifying investigation, Frieda will face her darkest fears in the hunt for a clever and brutal killer...

Nicci French: Blue Monday. Penguin, ISBN: 9781405911429 (January, 2012), 401 p., £7.99.

Nicci French: Blue Monday (UK 2011)

From the Publisher:
Monday, the lowest point of the week. A day of dark impulses. A day to snatch a child from the streets...
The abduction of five-year-old Matthew Farraday provokes national outcry and a desperate police hunt. And when his face is splashed over the newspapers, psychotherapist Frieda Klein is left troubled: one of her patients has been relating dreams in which he has a hunger for a child. A child he can describe in perfect detail, a child the spitting image of Matthew.

Detective Chief Inspector Karlsson doesn't take Frieda's concerns seriously until a link emerges with an unsolved abduction twenty years ago and he summons Frieda to interview the victim's sister, hoping she can stir hidden memories. Before long, Frieda is at the centre of the race to track the kidnapper.

But her race isn't physical. She must chase down the darkest paths of a psychopath's mind to find the answers to Matthew Farraday's whereabouts.

And sometimes the mind is the deadliest place to lose yourself.

Nicci French: Blue Monday. A day of dark impulses - a day of murder. Michael Joseph, ISBN: 9780718154950 (June, 2011), 400 p., £12.99.