Day of the Dead by Nicci French {Book 8, the end of the Frieda Klein series}

I’m certainly a fan of a series. The more books in a series the better in my opinion. Some folks don’t like the feeling of commitment with five or more books, following the same characters on a mystery or whichever genre it may be – I figure I am going to be reading anyway and I like familiar characters, watching them grow as characters and in their personal and professional lives.

So, this is the end of the Frieda Klein series. Eight books total starting with Blue Monday and winding our way through the days of the week. As I’ve mentioned before, I read the Sunday book first so I read many spoilers. Still, I went to the beginning and read through. Sunday was the best book. Thursday was not my favorite and had a seriously slow start.

This last book, Day of the Dead, wrapped up the series and so I will no longer have Frieda, Reuben, Josef, Chloe, Jack and Karlsson in my life. Josef was my favorite of the sub-characters.

Frieda needed to disappear in the previous book and spent most of her time in this last book under the wire. A killer was on the loose and she was the target, a string of violent incidences and a conclusion that I could accept.

There was a character named Lola Hayes who is introduced early in this book. She needs a subject for her criminology classes and plans to explain how psychoanalyst Frieda Klein thinks, planning on interviewing those close to Frieda and working out a profile. By trying to discover more about Frieda she puts herself in danger and is forced, literally, to go on the run with our main character. It’s a cat and mouse game and a bloody one at that.

The beginning was slow for me and I’ll say I wanted a different ending to this eighth book saga. I wasn’t especially disappointed as all things were resolved, I would just like to have seen some characters end up differently. It’s hard to review this without giving out a very important factor that is a huge spoiler.

Lots of food mentioned throughout the book.

Butternut squash soup, burgers and beers, bowls of bean sprouts and Greek salad, a simple salad of tomato and avocado and a bread roll.

Spaghetti and red wine, a Ukrainian lamb dish and a bottle of vodka. A flat white and piece of carrot cake. Chicken sandwiches with lots of mayo and tomatoes.

“Frieda bought a cauliflower, some cheddar cheese, butter, milk and a half-baked baguette. She added a small jar of mustard to the basket, two chocolate bars, apples, a jar of marmalade and oatmeal. Later she cooked a mustardy cauliflower cheese which they ate with hunks of baguette.”

I bought a cauliflower and planned to make that cheese dish but I still haven’t gotten around to it.

 

Goodbye Frieda Klein – it was a good ride.  Lots of mystery and I would certainly watch a television series if one was developed base don her character.

Linking up with:
Joy’s Book Blog for British Isles Friday
Heather for her August Foodie Reads

Tuesday’s Gone by Nicci French (with chicken & avocado tapas)

Tuesday’s Gone by Nicci French:   This second book in the Frieda Klein series was better than Blue Monday (#1) in my opinion.  More character development and the mystery was more intriguing to me. The London based psychotherapist, Frieda Klein, reminds me loosely of the Jessica Fletcher character from TV series Murder, She Wrote.  Loosely, as I said, because when our main character is involved, a murder is going to take center stage.

I like Frieda even though she isn’t what one would describe as a warm personality.  Perhaps you have to be completely in control and compartmentalize your life if your profession is psychotherapist. Yet there are qualities about her personality that I admire.

We have a rousing start with unbalanced woman named Michelle serving tea and buns to a decaying corpse she has propped up on her sofa.  The police, specifically Inspector Mal Karlsson,  involve Frieda as the woman in question may be a murderer or know something about the murder of the man in her home as she dragged him home from an alleyway.  There isn’t any identification to be found but, in a series of improbable events, Frieda Klein is set on the path to discovering his identity.  Early on in the story we learn the man’s name is Robert Poole.  More mystery about that later but to mention it would reveal a spoiler so, enough said on that now.  “Robert” is indeed a fascinating character.

Robert Poole made people “feel attended to” which is something most of us want.  We like when someone listens to us, seems to care about what we are saying, our concerns and our interests.

Characters from the previous book show up and as I mentioned, more character development in this book.  I have now read 3 of the 8 books in the series and look forward to the final installment when it’s published.  I think that’s called Day of the Dead.

Food is mentioned here and there.

Two whiskies and two packets of crisps.  He took a seat at the table and opened both packages. “I got salt and vinegar and cheese and onion.  I didn’t know which you liked.”
“Neither, really,” said Frieda.
“You probably don’t like pubs either,” said Karlsson.
“It’s better than the police station.”

• Frieda and Reuben talking over the phone.  She asks him to put potatoes in the oven for baking so they can have those for dinner.  But he hadn’t put potatoes in the oven, he’d made a greasy, rich lasagna, garlic bread and a green salad.

Frieda on a date with Harry at a Pop-up restaurant:

“I am Inga,” said the woman, “And I am from Denmark. My husband Paul is from Morocco.  We cook together.  I will bring you wine and food and there is no choice. No allergies, no fads?”

They were served a plate of pickled fish with sour cream, smoked meats, yogurts, savory pastries and wine.

Evidently a pop-up restaurant serves a handful of people and they pop up in various locations, serve dinners and one day they relocate.

• Josef bakes a honey cake with cinnamon and ginger.
• A dinner party at Oliva’s place – Salmon fillets cooked in pastry, meringues for dessert, lots of wine.
• Yvette hands out packets of sandwiches, ‘Cheese and celery for you, tuna and cucumber for you and chicken for me.”
• Frieda and Chloe eat at a Tapas restaurant – They ordered squid, roasted bell peppers, a Spanish omelet and a plate of spring greens.

I had quite a bit of choice for my food inspiration and almost made lasagna, because it sounded so good. But I went with Tapas.

Chicken and Guacamole Tostadas for Tapas

Ingredients
1 ripe peeled avocado
1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons finely chopped tomato
3 tablespoons minced fresh onion
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
½ teaspoon salt
1 clove of garlic minced
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
2 cups shredded skinless rotisserie chicken
¼ cups smoked paprika
8 (6 inch) tostada shells

Place avocado in small bowl; mash with a fork. Stir in 2 TB tomato, 1 TB onion, 1 TB juice, ¼ teaspoon salt and garlic.

Combine remaining 1 cup tomato, 2 TB onion, 1 TB lime juice, ¼ teaspoon salt and cilantro. Toss well.

Combine chicken, remaining TB juice and paprika; toss well to combine. Spread about 1 TB guacamole over each tostada shell. Top with chicken mixture and about 2 TB salsa.

Linking up with Joy’s British Isles Friday Heather’s February Foodie Reads and Beth Fish’s Weekend Cooking Series.

      

Blue Monday by Nicci French

Blue Monday by Nicci French
Publisher: Penguin Group

As I mentioned before, I started with book 7 – yeah, brilliant. But I was so taken with the story and characters that I decided I would grab book 1 and read the beginning, even if I do have a few spoilers along the way.

This book is the start of the Frieda Klein series and it begins in 1987.

It takes a while to get started, it moves rather slowly at first while you get to know the characters but, in my opinion, the character development is worth it. Frieda is a psychotherapist. She isn’t a warm character but I like her. She’s complex, cool and competent. Intelligent and a problem solver. Her mind never seems to shut down and so she walks the streets of London at night until she is weary. I like her rituals such as laying the fire in the morning so she can start a fire each evening when she returns home. I like her organizational method to approaching….anything.

This book introduces us to Frieda’s latest client, a troubled man named Alan Dekker. The short gist of it is he is an emotional mess. He is on the verge of a breakdown and anxious all the time about so many things in his life. To add to it, he and his wife Carrie are having trouble conceiving a child. He wants a child of his own rather than adopting and gives Frieda great detailed descriptions of his fantasy child, down to the hair color and build. He explains all this during his therapy sessions, a place where he should be safe and know his feelings won’t be shared. Unfortunately a little red-haired boy named Matthew Faraday has been abducted and he fits the description of the fantasy child to the letter. Big red flag here! Did Dekker abduct Matthew?

Now comes the ethical dilemma for Frieda about whether she needs to go to the police. Detective Chief Inspector Karlsson is assigned the missing child case and this is where he crosses paths with Frieda Klein. It’s explosive in so many ways. This sets up the premise that Frieda may be working, albeit hesitantly, with the police now and again.
The end wraps up fairly nicely yet leaves you curious about a few possible loose ends.

So. Now that I have read both the last book and then this book  I can say that I will read the series  – but I liked the characters in Sunday Silence better than this one. Clear as mud right? Knowing how some of these folks turn out and clearly the writing was crisper in book 7, that’s what interests me. Blue Monday needed to have the character development and the explanations about their lives but it wasn’t a I’m-in-love-with-this-series instantly had I started with this book.
Please don’t let me turn you off to the Frieda Klein series, I honestly do think it’s good.

Food mentioned here and there……
Curried cauliflower and chick pea salad
Marmalade Bakewell tart
Holubsti (pickled fish)
Kutya (wheat, honey, poppyseed and nuts)

Recipe for chickpea salad may be found HERE.

Linking up with Joy’s British Isles Friday , Beth Fish’s Weekend Cooking Series and January Foodies Read at Spirit Blog.

Crimson Snow and Sunday Silence for #BriFri

Christmas and murder mysteries, they go hand-in-hand, right? Crimson Snow is the selected book for the Kindle English Mystery Club. This volume of short stories is perfect for the mystery lover during a hectic holiday season. You can read a story quickly. This is part of the British Library Crime Classics, the short story collection. There were authors I am not familiar with and I enjoyed most of the stories but none were brilliant. You can see the surprise ending fairly well. The Christmas ghost story was great.

Sunday Silence by Nicci French was excellent.  I think I made a mistake reading this one first.  Most likely I read spoilers relating to previous books in this series. Once I started this book I realized I liked the style and the plot so I’m planning on reading the other books such as Blue Monday and Tuesday’s Gone. Certainly I will give those a go in 2018 and read more by this husband and wife team of authors.
From the first page you jump right into the story, no lagging around hoping it gets interesting. The police are called to Frieda’s house as a body has been discovered under her floorboards. It’s someone Frieda knows.

It won’t be the first murder in this book, we have abductions thrown in there too. The writing style captured my attention, grabbed me from the beginning. Obviously there was prior character and relationship development in the earlier books but that didn’t leave me bewildered at all. As the police investigate and Frieda comes up with her own theories tensions build between them.

I notice the food references in books, even if they aren’t foodie books, so here are a few:

“He returned to the kitchen, which was full of steam, the smell of potato cakes, barley broth and spicy lamb stew.”

“He started working on an artisanal cheese stall on the South Bank and became something of a cheese zealot, offering soft wedges wrapped in waxed paper as gifts wherever he went”

“Jack had cooked spaghetti. Do you want some? He asked hopefully, I made enough for an army. “I’d love some, said Frieda, not because she was hungry but to see the look of pleasure on his face.”

Jack planned a risotto and had all the ingredients in his backpack; red onions, dried mushrooms, Parmesan and even a small jar of truffle sauce that someone had given him at the market in return for a circle of soft cheese.”

Josef ordered the full English breakfast: fried eggs, two rashers of streaky bacon, a large pink sausage, fried bread, fried tomatoes and mushrooms.

The Risotto was calling me but I went for comfort food – Spaghetti Bolognese.  Can’t go wrong, you won’t go hungry.

Linking to:

The Kindle English Mystery Book Club

December Foodies Read

 Joy’s British Isles Friday