THE SAFE HOUSE by Nicci French started off strong with the discovery of the bodies of a wealthy husband and wife - Leo and Elizabeth MacKenzie. The couples daughter- Finn - is found upstairs away from the murders, suffering from a neck wound...but still alive.Dr Samantha Laschen is a specialist of post-traumatic stress. She has moved from London to the countryside with her young daughter - Elise - not far from where the recent murders took place. Samantha's (Sam) plans for peace and quiet are put on hold after she is persuaded- by the police investigating the murders- that with her vast knowledge of trauma, and her out of the way house by the sea...wouldn't her home be the perfect environment for Finn's safe recovery?Ummmmmmm no not really...I had a hard time with a lot of this book.Yes, the world is made up of maaaaaaaaaaaany people making bad life decisions, but I had a problem believing that Sam would risk her daughters safety and mental health hiding a troubled teenager from a murderer at large. I wasn't convinced, so the book fell apart for me as soon as it started really. I also thought the book should have ended at least a hundred pages sooner than it did. Once I had the murder plot figured out, it was quite frustrating waiting for the police and other characters to catch on to what had happened.
A young doctor specializing in Trauma recover has had enough of her busy life in the city and decided to move to the coast, surrounded by farms, and foxhunts, and weekend sailors. It's hardly a natural fit, but she's got time off before she starts work on her new department at the local hospital, so maybe an opportunity to get he daughter started in nursery school and her own book written.That goes to hell pretty soon. The local police bring her a teenage who's survived the particularly heinous murder of er parents and now needs somewhere to recover safe from the public eye. Just in case any might want to carry on with that attempted bit.Her rather independent boyfriend is crazy about her her daughter Elsie, but a stranger as well?There is grief, there is trauma, there is the public interests, there are privacy concerns, there is the slow unwinding of what exactly did happen, and why and how.The French novels strike a fine balance between the high drama of crime and the very prosaic details of life. There's lots of reading the same boos over and over to Elsie, her fraught encounters with her classmates, the endless tedious business of shopping for food and fixing it. The emotional aspects of the events are only viewed obliquely, with proper British restraint.Inter-library Loan
What do You think about Safe House (2008)?
I normally really enjoy Nicci French books, finding them atmospheric and full of suspense. Maybe I just didn't get this one but it seemed like the ending was completely missing a satisfactory conclusion, at the very least if the point was for Finn to escape then the part about kidnapping Elsie is redundant. I did not rate this book at all and had I read this work first I probably wouldn't have read any of their other works. Shallow and fails to draw you in.
—Lauren-Jane
I must be a bit strange as unlike everyone else I found the second half of the book much more interesting than the second. I could not put it down once all the inconsistencies, red herrings, weird decisions and other quite bizarre things from the first half started to be explained (a bit). The ending was pretty bad and unsatisfactory. I find it hard to credit that an author who has 4 of her own children would create a character whose 5 year old daughter was repeatedly put at risk. I loved her descriptions of her relationship with her daughter and of the countryside. Not a book I would recommend as a must read but reasonably entertaining
—Sharon
I think it is the first time I want it to be possible to put 3.5 stars. This book wasn't really four - the first third of it I was struggling with it, finding the things happening and their explanations and characters' motives a bit too stretched... But then somehow it got better and I finished the second half in one day, not being able to stop. And so it became much better than some other books I rated three.This second part, I was really sympathetic to Sam (view spoiler)[, especially to her losing Danny. That moment with visiting his grave.. God, I cried a lot. (hide spoiler)]
—alissee
