Tuesday's Gone by Nicci French

Tuesday's Gone is the second book in Nicci French's mystery series.  Frieda Klein is the main character and she is a very interesting woman.  OK, before I begin sharing my thoughts on the book, let me say that it took me forever and a day to read this book.  Almost two weeks.  It wasn't the writing and it wasn't the story and it wasn't the characters.  I honestly can't say why my reading speed lagged so tremendously.  I think I mentioned a couple of days ago that I felt I might be heading into a slump.  Anyway, I listened to the first book, Blue Monday, on audio and I've already decided that the third book, Waiting For Wednesday, will be an audio book as well.  I think, for me, some series just work better at times as a listen.

Back to Dr. Frieda Klein and Tuesday's Gone.  This book begins with a truly gruesome scene, discovered by a social worker on a random visit.  A woman, Michelle Doyce, who has mental issues, is found taking care of a dead man - a naked dead man.  She's trying to serve him tea and she doesn't seem to understand that he is dead.  This woman is not able to communicate with DCI Karlsson and his team.  He brings in Frieda to see if she can talk to Michelle and also help them discover the identity of the corpse.

It turns out that the man, Robert Poole by name, was a sort of con artist who was able to ascertain what people needed most, be it attention or comradeship or fitness counseling, and give it to them - for a price - a very large price.  The journey of discovering Robert Poole's killer and how he came to be in Michelle Doyce's apartment is very complicated.  Frieda genuinely wants to help each and every person she runs across in the investigation, which really is not possible or wise.  Characters appear from the previous book, good and bad.  We meet another member of her family, of which we still know very little.  We see a bit more about Karlsson's team and also meet an man who is consulting with the police bosses to make things more efficient - or to advise on budget cuts.  And Frieda is also not convinced that the perpetrator from the previous book is really gone for good.  She feels someone watching her.  It's a twisty, turny story with a lot of red herrings.

Again, Frieda is maybe the most complicated character of all.  We learn a bit more about her, but not so much.  I'm still very intrigued, but I want to understand why she is so calm and even-tempered or appears so anyway.  How did she get that way?  She's accused of several things in this book, hounded by reporters, ignored by many of the police contacts, and still...she maintains her calm.  Not without cracks inside though, as we are beginning to see.  I'll leave you with a couple of quotes about Frieda:

As always, walking was a way of thinking.  The houses flowed past her, the pavements pressed against her feet, and the wind blew her hair back and filled her lungs.

 There was a quality of deep reserve about her (Frieda), thought Tessa.  She was in the room and yet somehow standing back from it.  She gave you her full attention, and yet at the same time you felt she had a core of isolation of separateness.  It made her a kind of magnet.

As I said above, the third book in the series is Waiting For Wednesday.  I look forward to reading it soon.