Nicci French Books In Order

Publication Order of Frieda Klein Books

Publication Order of Maud O’Connor Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Anthologies

Nicci French is the pen name used by the team of a husband and wife writers named Nicci Gerrard and Sean French. They are popular for writing psychological thrillers and hail from England, The United Kingdom. Nicci and Sean also write several of their novels separately other than writing the psychological thrillers together. The two got married in the year 1990 and from 1999 onward they have been living in Suffolk, East Anglia, England, The United Kingdom. Sean is Nicci second husband as she was married once before. From that marriage, she has two children named Anna and Edgar. With her marriage to Sean French, she is blessed with a couple of daughters named Molly and Hadley. Author Nicci Gerard was born on June 10, 1958, and spent her growing years in Worcestershire. She grew up with two other sisters and a brother.

Nicci went on to complete her school education from The Alice Ottley School, located in Worcester. After that, she joined the Oxford University and studied English Literature. Nicci also went on to obtain her degree in Master of Philosophy from the Sheffield University in the year 1986. Nicci was looking for a job after completing her post graduation from the Sheffield University. It was then when she decided to teach literature and went to places like London and Los Angeles in this regard. Her next job after teaching was working as a freelance journalist. But before that, author Nicci Gerrard founded a magazine for women. During the same time, she got married for the first time to Colin Hughes and became the mother of a couple of kids. However, some complications began to develop in her happy married life and she was finding it very difficult to manage it along with her profession as a freelance journalist.

Eventually, her marriage turned into a failure and Nicci Gerrard was forced to separate from her first husband. She lived alone with her children for some time after her marriage got broken and joined the New Statesman daily newspaper to work as an editor. It was during this time that Nicci Gerrard met with Sean French, who was also working in the New Statesman as a weekly column writer. After working for a short period, Nicci left the New Statesman after receiving a better job offer from The Observer. Nicci’s father, John Gerrard died in the year 2014 due to deterioration of his dementia during a 5 week stay in a hospital. During the whole period of his treatment, family visit was highly restricted. Due to this, author Nicci Gerrard launched a campaign in the name of her father for the extension of the visiting rights for caretakers of patients suffering from dementia. Author Sean French was born on May 28, 1959, in Bristol. His father, Phili French, was a film critic and radio producer. Just like other 2 younger brothers, author Sean French was also educated at the William Ellis secondary school, located in north London. After that, he went on to join the Oxford University for studying English Literature. Even though Sean and Nicci studied at the Oxford University together, they never really met with each other. During his stay at the Oxford University, author Sean French won a contest for young writers organized by the Vogue magazine. Subsequently, he went on to work as a journalist. In the year 1987, author Sean French wrote his first column and then joined the New Statesman as a weekly column writer. He worked there till the end of the year 2000. In the year 2004, Sean wrote his solo novel titled ‘Start From Here’.

One of the popular psychological thriller novel series written by Nicci French was published under the title ‘Freida Klein’. This series consists of a total of 6 books which were released between the years 2011 and 2016. All the books in this series feature the central character in the form of Freida Klein, who is depicted to be in her mid-30s and working as a psychotherapist in London. The first book in the Freida Klein series was titled as ‘Blue Monday’. It was published by the Michael Joseph publishing house in the year 2011. In the plot of this book, authors Sean and Nicci have described Monday to be the lowest point in the week and full of dark impulses. It is also depicted as the day which a kid is snatched from the streets. At the start of the book’s story, it is shown that a 5 year old kid named Matthew Farraday gets abducted. A national outcry follows and the police begin a desperate hunt to catch the kidnappers.

When psychotherapist Freida Klein sees the face of Matthew in the newspapers, she becomes restless, knowing that one of the patients was having dreams of hunger for a kid. The patient had described the child in great detail and it turned out that Matthew was matching all the descriptions of the child in his dreams. Freida decides to take the matter to Detective Chief Inspector Karlsson, but he does not listen to her story. Soon, he finds a link with one of the unsolved child kidnapping case that had happened 20 years ago. After that, Karlsson asks Freida Klein to talk to the victim’s sister with the hope of getting some information from her memories of the past. With all this happening around her, Freida finds herself to be at the center of a race to find and catch a psycho kidnapper. Being a psychotherapist, Freida is required to chase the path of the dark mind of a psychopath in order to get some information about the whereabouts of Matthew Farraday. In the end, she realizes that the mind can be a deadly place for losing oneself.

The book that followed the debut novel of the Freida Klein series was titled as ‘Tuesday’s Gone’. It was released by the Penguin publishers in the year 2012. The story depicted in this book by authors Nicci and Sean shows the life of a London-based social worker, who makes routine visits to the house of her client, who she finds serving afternoon to a decomposed and naked corpse. When Chief Inspector Karlsson is asked to carry out the investigation to find the identity of the dead man, he does not find any success. Therefore, he decides to call Freida Klein for some help. She comes to know that the dead body was of a man named Robert Poole, who was famous as an extraordinary conman. Freida does not seem to get over the feeling that her past is not done with her. She begins to think whether someone deliberately killed Robert Poole to indulge her into the investigation or not. If such was the case, then she fears that she might be the next victim because of her involvement in the investigation. The story described by Nicci French in the book draws the readers in a faithless and fractured world inexorably. Freida Klein is brilliantly described as the quintessential heroine of the present times.

2 Responses to “Nicci French”

1. Sean Galbally: 2 years ago

   I have read almost all the Nicci French books and without exception they are addictive page turners.

   Reply
2. Tina Manley: 2 years ago

   Love all the books , just trying to make sure I have read them all before I have to read them again…..they are riveting 🧐🥰

   Reply