Waiting for Wednesday by Nicci French
This is the third novel in the series featuring pschotherapist Frieda Klein, but I haven't read the first two. Here, Frieda has been ousted from her alliance with the police and is still physically and mentally recovering from the attack that nearly took her life. Also, she has a stalker, a man who had been thought dead, but it later came out that it was his twin brother who had died.
Frieda's lover, Sandy has left for work commitments in New York City, although they communicate regularly. Josef, a friend with construction skills has taken it upon himself to give her a lovely large bath, but this job seems to be growing and leaving Frieda without her usual solace of a meditative soak.
Her replacement with the police, Bradshaw, is resentful of her despite his holding the position and when he sets her up, along with others, she reacts differently than her fellow therapists. One statement that the student who approached her used has caught in her mind and she can't let go of it, working her way methodically back to the source of the statement to figure out why it calls her so strongly.
But the book opens with a woman dead, and her young daughter making the discovery of her body. Ruth was a loving mother and wife, a friendly neighbour, and a happy worker, seemingly the perfect woman. But as her secret emerges, the police struggle to discover who knew what and when they knew it.
Frieda's sister-in-law Olivia seems to be going through a crisis as well, and her niece Chloe draws Frieda into the situation.
Meanwhile, dogged journalist Jim Fearby has seemingly completed his quest to have a man released for a crime he didn't commit. But Fearby is haunted by the question of who did kill the young woman, and his doggedness leads him to other missing young women trying to find a connection. When Frieda and Fearby have their paths cross, they join forces as they look towards patterns and opportunities.
Frieda is not well, and she has many people in her life both wanting her to do things for them, and wanting to take care of her, but even though she recognizes that she needs help, she is bent on following the trail she is on, and resentful of the demands of others, even those who demand only to help.
This is a complex novel, with several plot lines, and a lot of beneath the surface issues. An engrossing read
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