Review: THE UNHEARD, Nicci French

• 
  this edition an uncorrected proof
  
• Book published by Simon and Schuster September 2021
• Length: 464 pages
• ISBN13: 9781471179327

Synopsis (publisher)

He did kill. Kill and kill and kill.’
 
Tess’s number one priority has always been her three-year-old daughter Poppy. But splitting up with Poppy’s father Jason means that she cannot always be there to keep her daughter safe.
 
When she finds a disturbing drawing, dark and menacing, among her daughter’s brightly coloured paintings, Tess is convinced that Poppy has witnessed something terrible. Something that her young mind is struggling to put into words.
 
But no one will listen. It’s only a child’s drawing, isn’t it?
 
Tess will protect Poppy, whatever the price. But when she doesn’t know what, or who, she is protecting her from, how can she possibly know who to trust . . . ? 

My Take

Three year old Poppy can't always tell her mother what she means. But Tess becomes alarmed when she finds a disturbing drawing which Poppy tells her is a woman being killed. Poppy increases her sense of anxiety by asking her mother if she is dead. Tess at first thinks Poppy is telling her about something her father Jason, whom Poppy stays with a couple of times a week, has done. Until now both she and Jason think they have been handling their separation, and his new marriage, pretty well. Now Tess is anxious about who Poppy has been having contact with when she is not with Tess.

Poppy is showing clear signs of anxiety: wetting the bed, biting other children and so on. Now Tess does not know who she can trust, and she doesn't know who she should tell. She stalks Poppy's father and his new wife, and does not like what she finds out, things that were happening when they were together. 

She tries to report things to the police, but, as they point out, there is no body, no evidence of a crime. By her 11th report they are threatening to take action, against her.

Nicci French has come up with a very believable scenario.

My rating: 4.6

I've also read

4.3, BLUE MONDAY
4.5, TUESDAY'S GONE
4.7, WAITING FOR WEDNESDAY
4.7, FRIDAY ON MY MIND
4.7, THE LYING ROOM
4.5, DAY OF THE DEAD