Land of the Living [Hardcover]

Nicci French (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 6, 2002

Abbie Devereaux wakes in the dark. She is hooded and bound, with no idea where she is or how she got there. Kept alive by a man she never sees, his only promise is that eventually he will kill her - like the others. But Abbie has spirit and bloody-mindedness on her side. She counts the seconds spent alone and plots her survival. Above all she dreams of returning to normal, careless, everyday life - the land of the living. Grasping at memories, Abbie recalls snatches of her identity, her career, and her disintegrating relationship with her boyfriend. Is there a connection between her real life and the voice in the darkness? And how can she survive in a place where fear becomes madness and the effort to survive seems too much to bear?

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A horrifying premise catalyzes this fast-paced, suspenseful thriller: A woman wakes up in a darkened room, bound, disoriented, unable to recall the recent past. She is terrorized and abused by a strange man who taunts her with the names of other victims. But for Abbie Devereaux, a 25-year-old Londoner, the nightmare really begins after she escapes. Recovering in a local hospital, she must confront the fact that no one believes her story. Her doctors think it's all a fantasy, "a cry for help." Det. Insp. Jack Cross can't find a crime scene. And when Abbie's well enough to go home, she discovers that her life-her job designing office interiors; her boyfriend, Terry; the flat they shared-has been destroyed, but she hasn't a clue as to how or why. Has she had a breakdown? Is she still in danger from the kidnapper? The bulk of the novel is about Abbie's inventive efforts to reconstruct her life and discover what really happened to her. French (Killing Me Softly) does a good job of making this unlikely scenario believable. But the larger authorial challenge is making Abbie, an average and unambitious young woman who has clearly made some bad choices in her life, into someone resourceful enough to solve the mystery. The book is psychologically astute about terror-Abbie's panic and bewilderment throughout her ordeal are rendered with precision-but her more basic motivations don't always ring true. Still, it's a suspenseful and harrowing tale, occasionally dipping into the truly gruesome, with powerful narrative drive.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Widely divergent in terms of plot, French's previous three stand-alone thrillers--Killing Me Softly (1999), Beneath the Skin (2000), and The Red Room (2001)--share a high level of suspense and three compelling heroines. Her latest, French's best work yet, adds another fascinating protagonist while managing to up the ante on suspense, generating a near-unbearable level of dramatic tension. Londoner Abbie Devereaux awakens to find herself injured, hooded, and bound, the captive of a psychotic man whom she cannot see. After a daring escape that almost kills her, she finds herself in the middle of a new nightmare: no one believes her story. Not even her friends. With no memory of the several days preceding her kidnapping, she lacks the ammunition to convince them. As Abbie goes about trying to reconstruct her lost week, she fights the panic of knowing that her unknown captor knows her. Painstakingly piecing together her life, Abbie tries desperately to figure out who kidnapped her--and why. Another brilliant effort by an author who never disappoints. Jenny McLarin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 310 pages
• Publisher: Michael Joseph (February 6, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0718145186
• ISBN-13: 978-0718145187
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,997,181 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Suspenseful...Another winner for Nicci French., May 2, 2003

By 

Nick G - See all my reviews

This review is from: Land of the Living (Hardcover)

Abbie Deveraux is living a nightmare. She is tied down with a hood covering her head, and she has no idea where she is, or why she is there. Abbie can feel the presence of her captor, but never a word is spoken. Abbie knows her days are numbered as the kidnapper tells her the tale of abducting and killing his women. With nothing but fear in her heart, Abbie makes a quick decision and escapes.

Telling the police of her ordeal will not be her only problem as the police don't believe her. As Abbie listens to what the detectives have to say she realizes nothing is as it seems, and those that she thought were friends are not.

Set out to prove herself sane, and catch the madman who abducted her, Abbie begins a terrifying journey retracing all of her steps leading up to the day she disappeared. As things become stranger, and Abbie begins doubting her own sanity, she makes a shocking discovery, one that will change the way she feels about those she loved, and at the same time stop a killer hell bent on destroying her.

`Land Of The Living' is an interesting little thriller with lots of surprises. Major plot twists are found throughout this gripping tale of memory loss and obsession, and the pages will turn fast as you race to see what will happen next. Well written and filled with full-bodied characters, this novel rises above the norm in the psycho thriller category. Each chapter has a shock and a cliffhanger, and each cliffhanger will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Nicci French has written previous bestsellers, all of which were page-turners that had readers glued to their chairs. Now with `Land Of Living' she continues her streak of up-all-night reads with a book that is probably her best to date. While remaining character driven thriller, the novel keeps it's suspense at high levels by teasing the reader with bits of plot information, and then throws in surprise after surprise to jangle their nerves.

`Land Of The Living' is a twisty thriller that should satisfy thriller readers, and land on the bestseller lists.

Nick Gonnella

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't look behind you..., April 28, 2003

By 

Luan Gaines "luansos" (Dana Point, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Land of the Living (Hardcover)

This is a harrowing tale of a young woman's worst nightmare come true. What a shivery pleasure it is, compulsively turning the pages of this thriller and thinking "just one more chapter"... Fearful of what the last page will reveal, I still keep reading, not nearly as brave as the heroine.

We first make the acquaintance of Abbie Devereaux when she is in a most extreme condition: her hands and feet are bound, there is a canvas bag over her head, a wire around her neck and a filthy gag in her mouth. But she perseveres, willing herself to survive this horrendous ordeal. Day by day, Abbie keeps her mind alert, imagining familiar images, anything not to lose hope, although she eventually starts to lose touch with reality, almost willing to die. Periodically tormented by her kidnapper, he sometimes leaves her alone for long periods. At an unexpected opportunity Abbie escapes, fleeing blindly into the night, sure her captor is but a breath behind. Finally, she sees a dim light. Collapsing, she wakes up in a hospital, police waiting to question her. Then comes the ultimate betrayal. No one believes her story.

There is no hard evidence for the police to track down Abbie's attacker and only her word for proof that anything happened at all. After a thorough examination, a clever therapist convinces the police that this incident is only a young woman's hysteria, a patient, in fact, prone to depression. Even Abbie's closest friends aren't sure whether or not she is telling the truth. Disheartened, Abbie is driven to prove the truth, haunted by nightmares and the knowledge that her would-be murderer is somewhere out there, waiting to finish the job. Danger stalks her every waking moment. Having cheated death, Abbie plumbs unexpected inner resources, unwilling to fail herself. Thus begins the arduous task of tracking her own footsteps, piecing together remnants of thoughts and scraps of information, ever closer to unfathomable fear and reviving the ordeal.

Tired of the same bored authors glibly churning out mysteries with hackneyed plots, it is a pleasure to find this well-crafted thriller. Nicci French meticulously plots each step of the action, not missing a beat. The author reveals a different side of this young woman with such an apparently routine life, where nothing's as it seems in a world of lost memories. Undaunted, Abbie makes her way through a maze of incongruent evidence, sifting and sorting, following her instincts. With courage born of desperation, she trusts no one but herself. Finally, Abbie embarks upon a nerve-wracking pursuit, coming face to face with true evil. Keep the lights on.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful thriller -- another winner from Nicci French!, May 27, 2003

By 

CoffeeGurl - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Land of the Living (Hardcover)

I couldn't wait to pick up Nicci French's new thriller -- and I wasn't let down. Land of the Living is French's best work since Beneath the Skin.

In Land of the Living, French introduces the reader to Abbie Devereaux -- a young woman held captive. Bound from top to bottom in the dark, she is only able to hear her kidnapper's sinister voice. To make matters worse, she has no recollection of the time in which she had been accosted. She is able to escape from her attacker's grasp, but her nightmare has just begun...

Will she be able to adjust to life after the aforementioned experience? Will be able to get her memory back? Will she be able to find her attacker? There are various twists in this powerful thriller. The climax is flooring.

Nicci French's descriptions of the terror the protagonist goes through are precise. I was able to feel the heroine's fear and hopelessness. I couldn't put this book down and was savoring the pages like an exquisite bottle of wine. Are you in the bargain for a gripping, intelligent thriller? I recommend this fine novel.