Englischsprachige Literatur

French Nicci

Until it´s over

Penguin, London 2007

Galbraith3

 Nicci French´s latest thriller is divided into two parts. In the first we read the first-person-account of events, murders naturally, by the young London cycle courier Astrid Bell, who happens to be at three different murder scenes, which puts her and the police in a difficult position.

She is living together with six housemates in various and ever-changing relations. Their easy-going community is in shambles, when the house-owner, who is living in the house, too, tells them to move out, because he wants to settle down with his new girlfriend, who everybody else hates. French enjoys describing these young people at this turning point of their life.

Only in the second part of the book she concentrates on the crime story, when the murderer, one of the housemates, again in first person, lets the reader participate in his weird and insane personality. The reader feels uneasy and troubled, like in Ruth Rendell´s “Live Flesh”. And is relieved, when the end of the book is reached.