Customer Reviews

The Secret Smile (SIGNED)

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Partly because Miranda, the decorating heroine of SECRET SMILE, is in some ways more vulnerable than this writing couple's previous heroines. She's a little bit rough and tumble and also feels loved less than her other siblings. She's vulnerable when Brendan meets her, and vulnerable when he next takes up with her sister. When Brendan does something terrible to her little brother, Troy, her anguish knows no bounds. You have to love her! Especially when she starts showing some gumption and begins, slowly at first, to fight back against the face of evil. It's always good when they start fighting back, especially when this involves putting one's clever hat on and going back to investigate the secret past of the enemy. In Brendan's case, there is no end to the horror of his being. But by this time Kerry is wise enough to deter the serpent . . .

It's amusing to see some of our Top 100 reviewers accidentally revealing themselves with this book. As anyone who has read the book knows, the name of one of the main characters is misspelled on the book jacket copy. Some of our reviewers, well, it doesn't look like they've read the book at all because guess what? They discuss the part of the plot that was on the book jacket using the wrong spelling of the name! Oh well, what do they say, "marry in haste, repent in leisure."

Miranda's life is turned upside down when she catches Brendan, a guy she dated for a little over week, reading her diary, and dumps him. Two weeks later, she discovers that he is now dating her sister, and soon they are engaged.

Of course, Brendan has told everyone that he dumped her and hoped there were no hard feelings. When the purchase of a new flat falls through, sister Kerry and Brendan show up on her doorstep asking for a place to stay for a week. A week turns into many, and soon, she moves out of her own place because the comments that Brendan makes to her (which cannot be repeated) and his general behavior have her really creeped out, as he has completely invaded her life, destroying friendships and romances in his wake of psychosis.

After the suspicious suicide of her troubled teenage brother and the death of a close friend, Miranda goes over the edge trying to prove that there is something strange about Brendan, only to cast suspicion on herself.

The author manages to make you loathe and feel for Miranda at the same time, especially since everyone is charmed by Brendan and thinks that she is the one with the problem.

This one will keep you on the edge of your seat just wondering when Brendan will be caught. I had such a hard time putting it down because I had to know what happened next.

I have loved Nicci French's work since Killing Me Softly. I recently found out that Nicci French is in fact a pseudonym used by a British couple. Well, they write awesome novels and I couldn't wait to pick up their latest work. Secret Smile is their best written and creepiest novel since Beneath the Skin. Miranda Cotton couldn't be happier with her life. She is a building contractor in London and her dating life is just as she likes it. But then an ex-boyfriend resurfaces, prepared to ruin her ordered life. He manipulates his way into her family's life to the point that she is not trusted among them anymore. To make matters worse, her friends and family are in danger and no one believes her when she tells them that Brendan Block is a raving psychopath. There are many twists throughout the novel.

I couldn't put this book down. The scenes are so palpable that they gave me goose bumps. The plot is executed in such a clever way. There were times in which I thought that Miranda was indeed delusional and that Brendan was not as bad as she made him out to be. The novel's conclusion is one of the best I have read in a long time. The characterization is excellent. Brendan's behavior is believable in that in real life there are people who play mind games not unlike the ones he played. I hadn't read thrillers in a while because the genre had become stale. Nicci French has satisfied my craving for a dark, intelligent thriller. Secret Smile reads like a twisted chick-lit. It's incredible and I cannot recommend this gem enough.

You can read the basis of the book in almost all the reviews so I'll cut to the chase. This isn't the best book by this team of authors. In fact, probably the worst I've read by them. Since these aren't series books, I'd skip this one unless you are a fan of the "ouch that hurts... let's do that again club". The whole premise is stupid since the main character has a family and friends that should have believed her in the 1st place. And it just keeps going and going and going and going. She is like the dumb herione in a horror movie where you are telling them not to go upstairs but they do anyways.... I expect my novels to be smarter than this.

This novel is very different from any book I have ever read. It's not really a mystery or horror or suspense. It is a tale of a woman who allows a man to enter her life and then he proceeds to try and destroy it by making others doubt her sanity. It is difficult to share much of the book without ruining it, and I don't want to do that, it is too good a book. Let's just say that once our heroine decides she has had enough and wants to get her life back, the way she does it and the end result is breath taking and tackles the reader without the reader seeing it coming.

This is a book I would recommend to anyone, male or female. It contains elements of mystery and suspense. It deals with human fraility, as well as, cruelty. You are shocked and appalled at the lengths Brendan will go through to hurt Miranda and turn those she loves against her. He does this in such a believable way. We all have known a Brendan at least once in our lives. You will cheer as Miranda fights to gain her self respect back, and your jaw will drop as you read the last 2 chapters. Give this book a try for something completely different and refreshing. You won't be sorry.

The husband/wife writing team that is billed as "Nicci French" was the perfect team to construct this intense, shocking story of romantic obsession. Why? Well, because the two main characters are a man and a woman, and we get to know both of them very, very well. The double-gendered authors get the inner workings of both the male and female minds exactly right. The novel's gimmick is simple: after their break-up, one member of a young British couple begins to stalk, torment, and threaten the other--but exactly who is doing what to whom? That's a good question, and the answer (and the ultimate solution to the problem) will surprise and disturb you.

I've read all the Nicci French books now, and this hypnotic little gem is my hands-down favorite. You may never look at your loved ones in the same way again. Enjoy (but leave the lights on!).

The premise is not original: Girl meets boy, girl dumps boy, boy turns out to be psychopathic stalking menace. But the British duo who write as Nicci French ("The Red Room" "Killing Me Softly") bring the dark, intimate thrill of the head-game to this timeworn scary story and from the first page, you're hooked.

Narrator Miranda Cotton, 26, the middle child, is the one with all the confidence and independence. She works as a builder-decorator, lives in a small London flat and likes her single life. The day Brendan Block lets himself into her flat and she catches him reading her diary is the day their brief relationship is over.

But the next thing she knows he's enraptured her shy, insecure sister, Kerry. He's insinuated himself into her family, told everyone, in the most sympathetic terms, that Miranda's reaction is just her broken heart talking. French winds the tension up, beat by beat. There are whispered obscenities, malevolent promises, unprovable invasions of her privacy. No one sees any of it but Miranda and as the scale of invasion escalates, her own family begins to turn aganst her. New boyfriends vanish in the face of her obsession. Even the reader begins to wonder - is Miranda an unreliable narrator?

As always French's characters come alive on the page. Even Miranda's new boyfriends have the same freshness of possibility for us as they do for her. Her pleasure in her life, her growing revulsion and helplessness, her increasing desperation, all ring true in this gripping psychological thriller. Not French's best but still head and shoulders above the rest.

Secret Smile is yet another of this writing duo's masterful psychological stories, this time about a good-looking, supremely skillful narcissist who insidiously worms his way into the life and mind of a woman who ends her brief relationship with him. Nicci French has (have?) captured the essence of narcissistic personality disorder in Brendan Block, who demands unconditional love but completely unable to love in return. Manipulation is the key word here. Brendan is adept at charming most of the world into admiring, accepting, and believing in him, especially women. It's what lies beneath that is so dangerous, and Brendan personifies the word "creep" in all its nuances. Once he realizes that Miranda has seen beyond the mask of his public image, Brendan is merciless in his attempts to destroy her and those around her, and he is quite successful for a good long time. Only when Miranda learns to use some of his own methodology does she begin to regain control. This is a tightly constructed story written in terse but fluent prose , which sustains its suspense until the very last page. I for one never expected the surprise ending. Very engrossing, pleasurable read. Give it a try.

I feel a little guilty enjoying these writer's works as much as I do. Not deep but really entertaining. Very British in its focus and style, this psycological thiller is a fast paced and enjoyable read. Might be a little too tame for conventional horror tastes and a little contrived for those who want realism. But the writing is good and the story easily engages the reader and holds the attention. French has a quirky and effective habit of dropping thematic bombs in very understated ways throughout the book. Many American writers should learn this trick. Subtlety is often better than overkill. Try this story, you'll probably like it.

I could not put this book down. This is my first Nicci French novel, and I will be going out to get more. This was a good read.