Alice Loudon has it all: a devoted boyfriend, a marvelous circle of friends, a challenging job as a research scientist. Then one morning, on her way to work, she exchanges a lingering look with a man so devastatingly attractive he takes her breath away. Adam Tallis is the essence of every female fantasy -- a daring mountain climber who has been hailed as a hero. As a lover, he is more passionate than Alice's wildest imaginings. Soon, there isn't anything or anyone she wouldn't give up to stay by his side. Now, all she has is Adam, and life with this stranger will take her to new heights of madness...and fear.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
A critically acclaimed, bestselling British author (The Memory Game), French makes her American debut with a stunning novel of sexual obsession. Alice Loudon has a wonderful boyfriend, Jake; a nice apartment in London; good friends; and a satisfying job as a research manager in a pharmaceutical company. On her way to work one morning, she locks eyes with a handsome man dressed in black, and cannot get him out of her mind. Later that day, she finds him waiting for her and she plunges into an affair of such intensity that she leaves Jake, neglects her friends and her health and even puts herself in great danger. "Sex had never been like this. There had been indifferent sex, embarrassing sex, nasty sex, good sex, great sex. This was more like obliterating sex." Alice's new lover, Adam Tallis, is a mountain climber and a hero. Guiding an ill-fated expedition to the top of a Himalayan mountain, he risked his life to save over half the climbers (although five people died). He seems perfect, but he reveals little about himself; he never laughs; and sometimes he inflicts physical pain on Alice during sex. Despite the shocking revelations of a woman who claims to be his former lover, Alice marries Adam. Soon she cannot ignore other frightening signals: mysteriously threatening notes and incessant phone calls from someone who never speaks. After she meets several more women from Adam's past, she pieces together his secrets, and sees his overwhelming love for her in a more sinister light. With lucid and limber prose, French delves into Alice's thoughts as skillfully as she describes the London setting. The pacing is swift and the dialogue sharp and realistic. The story's thematic device is a cleverly imagined redoubling: the physical and psychic risks of mountain climbing parallel Alice's journey towards a perilous sexual summit. "It had begun in rapture and finished in terror," reads a line near the end of the narrative. Every decade or so a psychological thriller appears that graphically recounts an intelligent woman's willing sexual subjugation; this gripping novel joins that group. Literary Guild, Doubleday Book Club and Mystery Guild featured alternates; film rights to Montecito Picture Company.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Alice abandons everything, including her devoted boyfriend, when she spots mountain climber Adam Tallis. But then hints of his dangerous past start to surface. French is a British journalist whose last book was a best seller in her homeland. The publisher will issue all her novels here, and movie rights for this one have already been sold.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Women Meets Sexy Man, Marries Him and Lives to Tell!,
By A Customer
This review is from: Killing Me Softly: A Novel of Obsession (Hardcover)
Killing Me Softly was an engrossing novel of psychological obsession expressed as sexual obsession. Sort of a 9 1/2 Weeks light. I read it in a day and 1/2 and I'm trying to forget it so I can read it again! Alice, the heroine, is smart, brave and adventurous. She did the things women would love to do but don't really have the guts (or the heart) to do. Would you leave you nice boyfriend, comfortable life, college mates and parents for dream man? Many women have been tempted to go for it, but take the safe, expected route instead (bummer). I enjoyed reading about a WOMAN taking a huge risk, going over the edge, ENJOYING IT and living to tell about it! Adam the mountain man was also a mysterious, sexy treat. I found his character to be intriguing, sympathetic, needy and very, very,very sexy (if you don't mind the ropes!!!).Women will love this book!!!!!!
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Kept me in its grip the whole time!,
By karin Staadegaard (Nijmegen, the Netherlands) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Killing Me Softly: A Novel of Obsession (Hardcover)
After having read 'The safe house' and 'The memory game', I knew that Nicci Frech' third book 'Killing me softly' just had to be good. And so it was. It kept hold of me from the minute I started reading until the last word. In fact, I would have liked it to go on for a couple of hundred extra pages. The main character Alice is a very smart girl who lives in a London apartment with her boyfriend Jake. Until the day she meets this mysterious stranger she is very happy with her life. After having met with this gorgeous looking man, things change drastically for the worst. French knows exactly how to get a grip on your attention and how to keep it. You can feel the tension rising and you know nothing is the way it seems. Things are bound to go very wrong indeed if no one is going to interfere! Therefore I found it extremely difficult to put the book down. If I did, because I had to, the story kept my mind occupied, I could hardly think of anything else. The book is thrilling until the lastbit, highly recomanded!
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A fatally attractive novel!,
This review is from: Killing Me Softly: A Novel of Obsession (Hardcover)
Killing Me Softly kept me turning the pages. The suspense put me in a trance. Nicci French's writing is very haunting; she reigns as one of the best and most original psychological thriller writers today. She -- like British counterpart Helen Zahavi -- has the effortless ability to capture you with her dark world and interesting characters.Alice Loundon's life couldn't be any more fulfilling. She is a successful career woman and is engaged to a wonderful man named Jake. Even though her personal life is in order, she feels that there is something, that there is a void that needs to be filled. Her ordered life lacks excitement. But things change as soon as she meets a handsome and mysterious stranger named Adam. After a night of passionate lovemaking with Adam, she dumps her fiance and marries Adam. Little does Alice know that she has embarked on a roller coaster ride of obsession and malice. There are some very intense moments in this novel. Killing Me Softly has a Fatal Attraction quality to it that will keep you turning the pages. There are many thrillers out there -- especially thrillers about obsession -- but Nicci French's language is original. I am pleased that this incredible novel surprised me into consciousness. I urge to read this magnificent novel.
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