The French Girl

This psychological thriller by Lexie Elliott is set in contemporary London and the cast of characters are six former Oxford chums who shared a graduation vacation at a French country farmhouse, the summer home of one of the student's family. The titular French girl was Severine who lived next door and came over almost every day to lounge by the pool. While the six afterwards move on with their lives, Severine is reported missing, and because they were ostensibly the last to see her, they were all interviewed and unanimously swore they saw Severine board a bus to town the morning of the day they left. Now, ten years later, the body has been found at the bottom of the well that was on the property, and the same French detective has returned to London to interview them again.  Of all the group, Kate Channing seems to be the most distressed by this turn of events. As lies and betrayals are reveled, she learns that her boyfriend Seb had sex with Severine the night before they returned to England. She has the additional stress of having gone out on her own to open a headhunting business for lawyers rather than continuing. Her firm is struggling financially and she is afraid it will fail, unless she wins the big for a lucrative contract with a major law firm, where one of her former fellow students is employed and whose father is already a senior partner there. Kate has also started seeing the ghost of Severine everywhere she goes, first as a skeleton--like the one found at the bottom of the well--and then as the beautiful and aloof young woman they all knew that summer.

Library Journal notes that the characters are well developed and offers: "As the detective continues to dig, the shifting dynamics within the group will keep the reader guessing until the end...First novelist Elliott has done a phenomenal job of combining a whodunit with a Big Chill vibe." Booklist says the author, who holds a doctorate in theoretical physics from Oxford (check out her bio), "launches a fiction-writing career with a smart, suspenseful thriller." The Washington Post also praises the character and setting development. "The author provides the perfect dose of character development before unveiling eerie details from her cast’s past, ensuring that we’re properly unnerved when their lives begin to unravel. Katie’s charming demeanor combined with her endearing self-awareness produce a main character that readers will find themselves begging, 'Please don’t be the murderer.' Her multifaceted relationships with her friends prove realistic and engaging, and the British pubs, flats and offices where their lives intertwine serve as relevant backdrops." I agree with their assessment of the structure: "While the crux of the story rests in events that occurred 10 years ago, Elliott opts to forgo the alternating past-and-present chapter layout and instead digs deep into her characters’ current lives, allowing history to reveal itself naturally through dialogue and memories. So stark is this difference from current thrillers that the book reads like a fresh genre." They conclude: "'The French Girl' demands a one-sit read." While I didn't finish it in one read, I did stay up late a couple of nights.