Beneath the Skin [Hardcover]

Nicci French (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Michael Joseph; First Edition edition (2000)
• ISBN-10: 1876590270
• ISBN-13: 978-0718143862
• ASIN: 0718143868
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (58 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Up All Night Beneath the Covers, June 28, 2000

By 

"waynenf" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beneath the Skin (Hardcover)

I have been a fan of Nicci French's since reading last year's "Killing Me Softly", and was wondering how the author could top herself. "Killing Me Softly" was a chilling exploration of sexual obsession, and was one of my favorite reads of 1999.

Nicci French's new novel, "Beneath the Skin", is even better. The new novel deals with three individual women who are threatened by a faceless killer who sends each woman "love letters" which grow progressively more menacing.

Miss French tightens the suspense with each chapter, until you find yourself bleary-eyed after staying up all night to finish this exquisite page turner.

Each section of the book is devoted to one of each of the 3 women. Miss French develops each character flawlessly, until the reader feels as if he has known these troubled women all of their life. I fell in love with each of these strong, female characters, and actually cared deepy what would happen to each one.

Some readers have complained that Miss French reveals the killer at the end of the second section of the book... however, there is one additional shock that Miss French saves for the last chapter. This novel is thoroughly engaging, and will definitely make my top 10 list for 2000.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Scary from Start to Finish, June 1, 2001

By 

Wendy Kaplan (Houston) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beneath the Skin (Mass Market Paperback)

Husband-and-wife team Nicci Gerrard and Sean French have outdone themselves in this really scary psychological thriller, which gives a whole new dimension to the crime of stalking.

As we follow three seemingly disparate women, each of whom is taunted by a sexually sadistic letter-writer, we begin to almost literally crawl beneath THEIR skin. We feel their initial annoyance, their reluctant acceptance that they have some kind of problem--and eventually, their bone-melting terror.

The novel works on several levels, as the authors carefully and concisely unravel the plot in the same way that the stalker psychologically unravels his victims. Our emotions are torn between disgust and anger at the inept police, to pity for the women, to almost unbearable suspense. This is the book you can't put down...the one you read until your eyes scream for mercy.

The authors' previous book, "Killing Me Softly," was a superb thriller; this one is better. And one of the things that makes it so is the lack of hyperbole. They write in such a carefully controlled way that it only serves to heighten the already unbearable suspense. Only once do they indulge themselves, in what has to be a self-mocking tribute to the 40s and 50s crime genre: "The heat was like a big old fat smelly mangy greasy farty dying dog..." That sentence is on page one, and made me laugh out loud. It was the last time I laughed...and the last time I could put the book down.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect, April 6, 2001

By 

Mark (Heerenveen, The Netherlands) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beneath the Skin (Hardcover)

It has been more than half a year since i read "Beneath the skin", and i still remember the main characters in this novel as if they were real people. To me, this is quite unique for a thriller, as in this genre the character is usually subordinate to the plot. On top of this, the plot itself is original, as the story unfolds from the point of view of three victims of a stalker. The atmosphere is oppressive right from the start, and, as a good thriller should, i had a really difficult time putting the book away before it was finished. The Nicci French novels are among the best in its genre, and "Beneath the skin" is the best of 4 books by Nicci French.