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    Thursday's Children: A Frieda Klein Mystery
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    Thursday's Children: A Frieda Klein Mystery
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    Thursday's Children: A Frieda Klein Mystery
    Audiobook11 hours

    Thursday's Children: A Frieda Klein Mystery

    Written by Nicci French

    Narrated by Beth Chalmers

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    The electrifying fourth book in the internationally bestselling Frieda Klein Mystery series

    Frieda Klein is uninterested in catching up on old times when her former classmate, Maddie Capel, shows up at her door-until she hears about Maddie's troubled daughter, Becky. The teenager claims she was raped in her own bed one night while her mother was downstairs. Her assailant left her with a warning: "Don't think of telling anyone, sweetheart. Nobody will believe you." And no one does--except Frieda.

    Becky's story awakens dark memories of an eerily similar incident in Frieda's own past that she's been avoiding for decades. When Becky is found hanging from a beam in her bedroom, Frieda returns home, seeking out her old high school friends to ask what they remember about the night that prompted Frieda to leave town for good. But confronting the ghosts of the past turns out to be more dangerous than she ever expected.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateMar 29, 2016
    ISBN9780698404076
    Unavailable
    Thursday's Children: A Frieda Klein Mystery
    Author

    Nicci French

    Nicci French is the pseudonym of English wife-and-husband team Nicci Gerrard and Sean French. Their acclaimed novels of psychological suspense have sold more than sixteen million copies around the world.

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    Reviews for Thursday's Children

    4/5

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    • 4/5
      Great continuation of the Frieda Klein series.
    • 5/5
      Book DescriptionFrieda Klein is uninterested in catching up on old times when her former classmate, Maddie Capel, shows up at her door--until she hears about Maddie's troubled daughter, Becky. The teenager claims she was raped in her own bed one night while her mother was downstairs. Her assailant left her with a warning: "Don't think of telling anyone, sweetheart. Nobody will believe you." And no one does--except Frieda. Becky's story awakens dark memories of an eerily similar incident in Frieda's own past that she's been avoiding for decades. When Becky is found hanging from a beam in her bedroom, Frieda returns home, seeking out her old high school friends to ask what they remember about the night that prompted Frieda to leave town for good. But confronting the ghosts of the past turns out to be more dangerous than she ever expected. My ReviewThis is the 4th Frieda Klein book that I have read and it is the best so far. It was a tough subject matter and a very personal one for Frieda in which we learned a lot about her past. I found it to be a very gripping read with lots of twists and turns. I found the characters to be developed in-depth and the plot suspenseful which held my interest to the very end. I look forward to reading the Friday book which was just published recently. I highly recommend this series to those who love psychological thrillers.
    • 4/5
      I find Frieda a very compelling character, and am very interested in reading more about her.This novel is more personal for her, as Frieda returns to the town in which she grew up, and deals with both her past and contemproary events.I seem to be on a kick of detective novels with bad mothers. They have been mostly well-written, and something of a comfort to those of us who did not have the saintly Mother's Day moms.Anyway! Good tale, well-plotted, and very engaging. You could probably start with this one, but it's richer if you've read the earlier novels.
    • 2/5
      Thursday's Children by Nicci FrenchFrieda Klein #4Audio narrated by Beth ChalmersThis is my first foray into this series, and it was clearly a mistake not to start at the beginning. It appears that Frieda Klein is a psychotherapist who has a history helping the police solve crimes, although she doesn't seem to have much respect from them. She has become well-known in the media and controversial, although it is not explained why that is. She does do pretty idiotic stuff, though, like hiding evidence and/or blurting things out to the police like "so-and-so is guilty of this heinous crime" without backing it up with any proof. Knucklehead.She has been estranged from her mother for over 20 years and is not close with her other siblings either. When they are together, it is clear they share a toxic relationship and are better off going their own way. Her mother has recently learned that she has a brain tumor which is a terminal condition. She is already displaying symptoms like facial tics, memory loss, and belligerent behavior. She is declining quickly. Frieda tries to help her mother, but it is obvious she really is not emotionally invested in a deathbed reconciliation.Frieda goes back to her hometown after 23 years to help an old friend who has a troubled daughter. She is greeted by everyone in a sarcastic/snarky manner. Everyone makes it clear that she is not welcomed back. Most people intensely dislike her. Again, I cannot tell what has set all of them off. She left the little town abruptly, but that doesn't explain why their negative feelings would linger for over two decades.A boyfriend who has been away in America but has abruptly returned to England after some danger Frieda was previously in (not explained) enters the picture and they quickly resume their relationship until Frieda suddenly is turned off by him and quickly dumps him without explanation. She's very abrasive and abrupt. I can't figure her out.The mystery revolves around a connection between the young girl she is helping and a crime committed against Frieda in her past, one of the reasons she never returned to her hometown. I was drawn into the story--like watching a soap opera--but only out of curiosity about what was going on with her boyfriend, Sandy, and some of her other friends which I can't tell if she has a romantic interest in them or just uses them for their cop connections and handyman skills. I was hoping for more backstory to clear things up. The mystery itself was "meh" and the book was kind of a yawner.
    • 3/5
      Thursday's Children is book #4 in the Frieda Klein series. This one moved slowly.  I'm glad it wasn't my first acquaintance with Frieda Klein as I may have put the series on the back burner.  So, having read five books in this eight book series, I will still say the Sunday book is still by far the best.Looking at the positives first, I will say I learned more about our elusive main character in this book than any of the others. It dragged a bit when she went back to her childhood home of Braxton and I think the story line could have been abbreviated.I like how her friends gather to bring her nice meals, the support they show her, the wine, the mystery aspects of the story and the English setting.  Both London and the little rural town of Braxton.My favorite supporting character is still Josef.  Hoping to see more of him in the next few books.  I felt very sorry for Frieda's boyfriend and thought she was too cold with him.  Don't want to reveal spoilers but I will be adding my thoughts on Goodreads where I can hide the spoilers.  I had it narrowed down to two characters as the main perpetrator but have to say I was actually surprised who the baddie turned out to be.Side note on an unrelated documentary:   The musical group Thursday's Children was focused on in the book, however, Thursday's Children was also a documentary  about the Royal School for the Deaf in Margate, Kent.  It won an  Academy Award for the Best Documentary Short of 1954. The subject deals with hearing-handicapped children.  They learn what words are through exercises and games, practicing lip-reading and finally speech. Richard Burton was the narrator.It doesn't appear the name of the fictional band has any relation to the documentary.  There isn't a mention or connection in the novel.Food mentioned:Hot buttered tea cakesAvocado, arugula, sun –dried tomatoes and hummus on focaccia bread.A sandwich of goat cheese, tomato and salad leaves.Butternut squash soup with rollsGarlic- mushroom soup and eggplant and red pepper flan.Oysters, scallops with bacon and risotto."Reuben cooked only four or five dishes and he served them in rotation.  Frieda had eaten them all, over and over again.  There was chili con carne, lasagna, baked potatoes with sour cream and grated cheese.  Tonight it was pasta with the pesto he bought from the local deli.""There was a bowl of thick red soup with dumplings, there was something wrapped in cabbage, large sausages, pickled fish, beetroot salad, chopped potatoes and unfamiliar kind of little mushroom, a huge wheel of bread, small pastries, a whole duck, pancakes……….."Representative meal is a risotto with wild rice, herbs and bay scallops.  A glass of Chardonnay is a great pairing here.(Photo at Novel Meals blog)
    • 4/5
      The fourth book by Nicci French (the pseudonym for husband and wife team Nicci Gerard and Sean French) to feature Frieda Klein forces the enigmatic psychotherapist to confront the demons of her own past when an old classmate begs her to help her troubled daughter.“Don’t think of telling anyone sweetheart. Nobody will believe you.”When fifteen year old Becky reveals she was raped in her own bed, Frieda is stunned by the similarities to her own experience as a teenager, twenty three years before. Compelled to investigate the link, Frieda returns to her hometown of Braxton where she reconnects with her both her estranged mother, and her high school peer group in search of answers.Thursday’s Children is another enjoyable psychological thriller offering plenty of drama and intrigue as Frieda tracks down a murderous rapist who has evaded detection for more than two decades.The setting of Thursday’s Children is also an opportunity for the author to expose the roots of Frieda’s cold and reserved demeanour, often remarked upon by readers. When Frieda returns to Braxton she reluctantly visits her mother, and her interaction with the woman who raised her provides important insight into the psychotherapist’s personality.“‘There are things I’ve run away from all my life. My father’s death. My rape. Things that happened after. But it seems as though I’ve run in a perfect circle and I’m back with it again. In the thick of it.'”While Freida grapples with her past, her loyal friends, Josef, Reuben, and Karlsson among them, rally to support her, even though Frieda is as always determinated to go it alone. The only element of the storyline that had me puzzled was Frieda’s seemingly sudden rejection of Sandy, I could guess at the psychology of it but it was rather abrupt and I still can’t quite make sense of it.Unsurprisingly, in the background of Thursday’s Children, lurks Dean Reeve, the murderous sociopath obsessed with Frieda. He is never far from Freida’s awareness and as the series is at the midway point, a final confrontation between the pair approaches.I couldn’t recommend Thursday’s Child as a stand alone read but for fans of the Frieda Klein series, it is an unmissable installment. I’m excited to move straight on to book 5, Friday On My Mind.
    • 4/5
      This is book four in the detective/psychological thriller series featuring psychotherapist Dr. Frieda Klein, who is the occasional collaborator of London Detective Chief Inspector Malcolm Karlsson. There is no romantic involvement between the two, although not for want of enthusiasm among readers for the match-up.In this book we get a better look at Frieda’s past, after a former schoolmate approaches her with a request to help her fifteen-year-old daughter Becky, who has been acting out. Frieda agrees to see Becky, and discovers she was recently raped by a man who told her before he exited her bedroom window: “Don’t think of telling anyone sweetheart. Nobody will believe you.”This rings bells for Frieda; she was raped at age 16, twenty-three years prior, and the rapist said the exact same words to her before he exited her bedroom window. No one believes Becky now, and no one believed Frieda then, but Frieda now understands the rapist is still out there, and still preying on young girls.Frieda is determined to stop him, and goes back to her hometown of Braxton to investigate the matter herself, with the help back in London of her friend Karlsson. No one seems to want Frieda back, and soon she finds out why as she learns the answer to her questions from twenty-three years before.Discussion: While this book gives us more background on Frieda's past, her personality remains opaque, even as it did to her friends and boyfriends while at school. Frieda was a solitary character then and in the present. Her friends now are pretty much limited to the able handyman Josef, her BFF Sasha, her former analyst Reuben, and Karlsson, but even with them she remains secretive. As she realized in a previous book, “[s]he could listen, but she couldn’t talk; give help but not ask for it.”But one man does know Frieda, the killer who is stalking her, and only she and Karlsson understand he is still alive, having previously staged a death to seem like his own.The authors (Nicci French is the pseudonym for the writing team of husband and wife Nicci Gerrard and Sean French) endeavored in this book to give us more hints as to why Frieda remains so closed off. As part of the explanation, they explored the theme of how rape victims have such a difficult time being believed; often, as in this story, girls are targeted who are troubled or rebellious and vulnerable, and apt to have a number of problems. Police and even the families of these girls dismiss the claims of rape as “hysterical” or “looking for attention.” They demand to know why didn’t they cry out or fight. The interrogators discount fear in the equation. Those who have been raped, meanwhile, have to live with the guilt, shame, and feelings of violation, with no support from anyone else. Years of this can have lasting damage.Evaluation: I like this series; the suspense is balanced with character development, and the pacing, while slower than most thrillers, is well done. I didn’t think this particular book was as good as the previous one, however, and I am beginning to think that the extent to which Dean Reeve, Frieda’s stalker, knows about everything going on with her (especially at the end of this book), is pretty improbable.
    • 4/5
      THURSDAY’S CHILDREN: A FRIEDA KLEIN MYSTERY is the 4th installment in the series. The series is written by Nicci French, a pseudonym of the English husband and wife writing team of Nicci Gerrard and Sean French. This title (as, indeed, the entire series) is a very complex, fascinating, psychological suspense thriller. The stories revolve around Frieda Klein, a solitary, complex, kind, gifted psychotherapist living and working in London.Frieda has a chilling memory from the past when an acquaintance from her home town of Braxton shows up on her doorstep asking Frieda to help her daughter, Becky. The story is very suspenseful and threads from other titles weave their way slowly into THURSDAY’S CHILDREN.Some of the old ‘school friends’ blurred together a bit. I stopped reading frequently in order to get everyone’s personalities straightened out. Frieda’s return to her family home and home town took a lot of courage. Some of the bits were hard to read, especially of her mother’s character.The plot points were also hard to read because of the subject matter. It is infuriating and frustrating to keep reading about the harassment and rape of young women and the coverups or non-investigations that follow.I find myself checking out the map first thing, to see what ‘lost and buried’ river Frieda is following on her solitary, night time walks. The River Walbrook features in this title. This thread is fascinating to me and I look forward to learning about some of the ‘lost places’ of London.DCI Karlsson, Josef, Sasha and Sandy have minor supporting roles in this title.An interesting, mysterious, psychological, dramatic read in this brilliant series.