I was in a bit of a reading slump (though with the way I’m posting, you can’t guess it by when this review comes out!) and wanted to read a thriller because I find this genre to be easy to read and it tends to pull me out of reading slumps. As I thought, I was right because The Unheard got its claws in me and I finished it much faster than I expected.

In The Unheard, single mother Tess is doing her best to co-parent with her ex-partner. But one day, her daughter Poppy returns from her time with her father and his new wife tired. She’s also behaving strangely, wetting the bed, making disturbing drawings and saying: “he did kill her”. Of course, this worries Tess and she sets out to find out what’s going on, pushing herself into a murder investigation in the process.

This is one of the books where I’ll be very interested to see things from the police’s point of view as well. Tess pretty much went to the police when she had no evidence and continued to look into things when they told her to stop, and they were very annoyed with her at points. But still, the police didn’t seem incompetent (just understaffed and overworked) and I wonder what the story would look like from their point of view.

I also liked that the reactions to Tess were realistic. She definitely overreacted at the start (and she was vindicated by the end) and the way people responded felt plausible and added to the sense of helplessness when Tess (and the reader) realises that there is really something going on, but now she’s cried wolf too much and no one wants to listen to her.

The characters here were interesting. Tess is definitely the most sympathetic, though I did worry for her at times because she definitely seemed very anxious. I’m really glad that Tess managed to grow by the end of the novel and start making different choices. It’s already clear that she loves Poppy and tries to be a good mum, and by the end of the book, all I wanted was for Tess to be happy as well. On the other hand, I really didn’t like her ex-partner Jason because of how manipulative he was – I was kind of hoping for a different character ending for him, but I can see why the story ended the way it did.

If I had one complaint, it would be that the ending of the book let me down a little. Without giving away any spoilers, I’d just say that the reveal was not as convincing as I would have hoped. But since this is more of a thriller than a mystery, it’s not a huge issue when looking at the book as a whole.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book! It was addictive and twisty, and I definitely want to check out some of Nicci French’s other books now.