The Unheard, Nicci French

I started The Unheard by Nicci French with high expectations — mostly because of the Frieda Klein series, which, for me, remains a small crime fiction masterpiece. Perhaps that was my mistake.

In The Unheard, the main character, Tess, discovers a disturbing crayon drawing among the belongings of her three-year-old daughter, Poppy. Tess becomes convinced that Poppy has witnessed a murder and begins her own investigation, while the people around her increasingly believe she may need professional help.

In short: Tess is alone against everyone, but is willing to risk everything to protect her daughter.

The premise is excellent: a child witnesses a crime, draws an incriminating picture, and the mother becomes the only person who believes something terrible has happened. This could have been a first-class psychological thriller — almost in the territory of Lionel Shriver or Fiona Barton.

But while reading the first 200 pages, I found myself thinking every few pages: “Come on, this can’t be serious.”

This point cannot really be explained without spoilers, so if you haven’t read the novel, you may want to skip the next sentence.

For me, it felt completely unrealistic that Tess would go to the police station and try to present Poppy’s drawing as evidence of a crime. The later actions of Detective Kelly Jordan, who initially shows empathy toward Tess, also didn’t feel convincing.

I kept reading because I expected the smaller pieces of the puzzle to eventually fall into place — and because I hoped there would be a satisfying explanation for the absurdity of it all.

Unfortunately, the resolution felt somewhat artificial.

BOOKLOVERS Rating: 3/5

The Unheard works if you approach it with zero expectations, and only after the halfway point does it begin to resemble something close to a thriller. It has strong potential and good atmosphere, but too many forced decisions to fully live up to the level I associate with Nicci French.

The good news is that in early 2025, Nicci French returned to form with the new Detective Maud O’Connor series and its first book, Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter? We’ll leave a link to the review — but if you don’t feel like reading it, the short version is: it was worth every minute.