Nicci French: The Last Days of Kira Mullen (USA 2025)

From the Publisher:
From international bestselling master of suspense Nicci French comes a chilling new psychological thriller about a woman determined to get justice for a murder no one else believes happened.

Nancy North is ready to put her life back together. After suffering a psychotic break that ruined friendships, stalled her fledgling restaurant, and forced her to move out of her comfortable flat, she'll do anything to get back to normal. She and her partner Felix -- who has been a saint through her recent troubles -- move into a new flat for a fresh start.

Nancy is taking her pills, seeing her therapist, and avoiding unnecessary stress. She's doing absolutely everything right, but something is still very, very wrong. On the first day in the new flat, she hears them again; the mysterious voices that triggered her first episode. It could just be the unfamiliar sounds of water in the pipes, or the screaming baby across the hall, but deep down she knows something more sinister is going on. Her fears are confirmed when the young woman in the downstairs flat, Kira, is found dead. Felix, her neighbors, and even the police insist it's a tragic suicide, but the pieces aren't adding up for Nancy. Can she trust her own instincts, or is it all in her head?

Meanwhile, Detective Inspector Maud O'Connor has misgivings about her colleagues' investigation of Kira's death. The boys club at the top seems intent on closing the case as quickly as possible, especially since the only person who thinks it could be anything other than suicide is known to be unreliable. But Maud knows what it's like to be dismissed as an overemotional woman and isn't so quick to discount Nancy's claims. As tensions reach an explosive breaking point, the line between fact and delusion becomes dangerously blurred, but Maud will stop at nothing to ensure that the truth comes to light.

Nicci French: The Last Days of Kira Mullen A Novel. William Morrow, ISBN: 9780063298408 (March, 2024), 464 p., Hardcover $27.99, Trade $19.99, eBook $12.99.

Nicci French: The Last Days of Kira Mullen (UK 2025)

From the Publisher:
She thinks it was murder.
But if she can't trust herself, can anyone else?

Nancy North and her boyfriend Felix are making the move across London to Harlesden. A new flat, a new area, a new start. Because while Nancy is fine now, she wasn't fine before. But settling into the new flat and meeting the new neighbours isn't helped by Felix's hovering concern. She is all right. She is sticking to her breathing exercises and doctor-prescribed help.

So, when their new neighbour Kira Mullan is found dead by suicide, Felix is understandably worried about Nancy's frame of mind. But Nancy saw Kira the day before she died and she didn't strike her as someone who was suicidal - she was upset and angry, yes, but was she upset and angry enough to take her own life?

Nancy is the only one convinced that there's more to Kira's death than has been discovered. But all the police and the neighbours see is a vulnerable woman who isn't sure of what she saw, and might even be imagining things...

Is Nancy imagining things, or are there more questions that should be asked about the last days of Kira Mullan?

Nicci French: The Last Days of Kira Mullen How do you prove a murder when nobody believes it happend? Simon & Schuster, ISBN: 9781398524132 (January, 2025), 448 p., £18.99, eBook £8.99.