Land of the Living
Nicci French (Reviewed by The Editor - Rebecca Brown)
2003 Warner Books
ISBN: 0446531510
A young woman escapes a harrowing abduction into a new hell where no one believes her story.
As anyone who has read Nicci French, knows you are in for a hair-rising, goosebump of a ride. These authors take you by the scruff of your neck & drag you into dark & frightening places, where unspeakable things are done to you, usually by a nameless, formless man driven by an unquenchable lust for dominance.
Land of the Living is no exception & because of the stark terror of the story, I have categorized it in Horror rather than in Mysteries & Thrillers.
Abbie awakens in a terrifying bind, literally, she's bound, gagged & hooded somewhere cold & dank. As she regains her senses & her wits, her abductor returns & choreographs seemingly compassionate gestures which only emphasize her dependence & her humiliation.
When Abbie does escape & makes her way back to civilization, after days of incarceration during which her emotions have run the gamut from suicide to murderous rage, there's no proof that anything untoward had ever happened to her & worse yet, she can't quite remember what her life was all about before she was snatched. Therefore, no one believes her, not the police, her roommate nor her shrink.
With no proof & her memories hounding her, she determines the only way she's going to lay her ghost to rest is to try to catch the abductor in the act. So she starts stalking & haunting all the likely places until one night, she stumbles upon her first clue.
If you take nothing else away from reading Land of the Living it is this: cold revenge is best & if you're going to survive long enough to serve it, then harden your heart & make your peace with all that's unholy in your spirit before meting out justice. Survive or die is the motif of this well-written, horrific novel.
Inspite of myself, I was cheering Abbie on in the end & felt just about as she did when surrounded by mealy-mouthed, politically correct do-gooders!
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