Secret Smile - Nicci French

SPOILERS BELOW!

I credit husband and wife writing team Nicci French with getting me so invested in the crime genre, I've enjoyed almost every book of theirs that I've read (there's been a few) most of them finished within a day. Secret Smile wasn't an exception to my law of Nicci French, however, it irritated me in equal measure.

Miranda Cotton has a short fling with Brendan Block, literally days, ending it when she finds him a little to comfortable and nosy in her life, reading her teenage diaries, a few weeks later Brendan is dating her sister, telling her family that he broke Mirandas heart among other uncomfortable lies and giving her a nickname that annoys you the reader as well; Mirrie. Eventually he moves onto her best friend, who ends up dead along with Mirandas brother.

The first half of the book is brilliant, creepy and uncomfortable, exactly what i have come to expect from Nicci French's work, however the second half slowly descends into complete madness and the ending left me feeling deflated.

Brendan Block is an expertly crafted villain, slimy and smarmy, manipulative and deceitful, i was physically cringing away from him whenever he appeared on the page something I've not felt before, unfortunately Miranda and her family are an infuriating bunch. You quite strongly want to punch them for basically the entire book.

Her family remain firmly on the side of Brendan, completely neglecting the feelings of their daughter/sister. In fact everybody, including a police officer, who comes into contact with Brendan is under his spell, except Miranda. It felt just a little implausible and i really wanted someone else to step up and say what the reader is thinking, what a creep. You do find out her uncle wasn't a fan but it takes a long time for him to voice an opinion and, quite frankly, Miranda needed his back up earlier. Her sister is the biggest idiot, when Brendan strolls into the bathroom where Miranda is taking a bath her sister accuses her of being the one to expose herself to him, despite the fact he walked in OBVIOUSLY KNOWING SHE WAS BATHING. Her sister also seems fairly dense, missing a number of Brendans creepy moments despite them all ending up rooming in Mirandas teeny tiny flat.

The book however did remain glued to my palm until i finished it (within four hours) but as mentioned, i was annoyed at the end, with Miranda arranging to have Brendan set up, falling in love seemingly quickly with someone else, being devastated by the death of her brother but recovering pretty fast when her best friend goes the same way. I wish the ending had been slightly different, explained better or just something different to what it was.

Its still definitely a three star for me though, because I've never felt the literal creeps from a character on a page quite the way i did with Brendan.