The French Girl - Mystery Review

The French Girl by Lexie Elliott

Rating: Very Good

Source: Publisher

Description:  They were six university students from Oxford--friends and sometimes more than friends--spending an idyllic week together in a French farmhouse. It was supposed to be the perfect summer getaway--until they met Severine, the girl next door.

For Kate Channing, Severine was an unwelcome presence, her inscrutable beauty undermining the close-knit group's loyalties amid the already simmering tensions. And after a huge altercation on the last night of the holiday, Kate knew nothing would ever be the same. There are some things you can't forgive, and there are some people you can't forget, like Severine, who was never seen again.

Now, a decade later, the case is reopened when Severine's body is found in the well behind the farmhouse. Questioned along with her friends, Kate stands to lose everything she's worked so hard to achieve as suspicion mounts around her. Desperate to resolve her own shifting memories and fearful she will be forever bound to the woman whose presence still haunts her, Kate finds herself buried under layers of deception with no one to set her free.

Genre: Mystery

Why I Picked This Book:  Secrets from the past and a body found a decade later?  No way I could resist!

My Impression:  It's been awhile since I read a thriller and the last one I read I was kind of meh about so I was a bit nervous.  This one however was far from meh - in fact it kept me up late turning pages trying to figure out what had happened!

One of things I don't like about the unreliable narrator type thrillers is when they give you nothing about whatever it is that happened in the past.  Elliott, however, gave me just enough.  I had the general idea of the setup and I knew the outcome which gave me just enough to keep me guessing and theorizing on just what had happened all those years ago in France.  As well all the characters with the exception of 1 are back in London and old grudges and desires are rising to the surface.

The story is through Kate's POV and I actually liked her which is unusual in this kind of psychological thriller.  She's intelligent with a  bit of a chip on her should but not so much that it annoyed me.  She's struggling to get her business going and having to deal with all sorts of emotions that she had spent a decade shoving out of her thoughts.

This was a really compelling read.  The pacing was good and I never felt like it was dragging or murky.  The ending wasn't entirely a surprise though it did have me holding my breath a time or two while I read on to see how it all played out.  

Would I Read More of this Series/Author?  Absolutely!  It had a bit of a Ruth Ware feel but with more likable characters.

Would I Recommend this Book?  If you enjoy mysteries with a psychological thriller edge  I think you'd enjoy this one.