Killing Me Softly
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
From internationally acclaimed author Nicci French comes a shattering psychological thriller in the spirit of Gone Girl.
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 devastatingly attractive man. 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.
But as she learns more about her lover, she enters his world of risk and transgression-and begins to uncover a past filled with troubling secrets. Adam hurts her sometimes and three women in his life have died accidental deaths. Determined to uncover the truth, Alice turns detective as her fears start to come true.
Soon love and sexual obsession overwhelm her until they threaten everything: her safety, her sanity and her life.
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.
Customer Reviews
Great writing
I love the way this writer describes everything, its fascinating!! A great read, worth every second!
read the book
I just found out that a movie was made :)! I definitely will be watching it after I read the book again since the last time I read it was 2009 and the movie came out 2010. I got the book when it was free, so I am lucky ;D!