Waiting For Wednesday by Nicci French

May I just say that 2015 has been a great year so far for discovering new-to-me mystery series?  I am loving the Dr. Frieda Klein books, written by the husband and wife team of Nicci Gerrard and Sean French aka Nicci French.  Waiting For Wednesday is the 3rd book in the series and I loved it.  As I wrote in my review of the previous book, Tuesday's Gone, my intention was to listen to this one on audio.  It was narrated by Beth Chalmers and she did a wonderful job.

Ruth Lennox has been murdered in the living room of her own home.  She's a normal wife and mother of 3 teenagers and DCI Malcolm Karlsson and his team can't seem to find any reason why she was killed.  Ruth was efficient and well organized.  Her house ran like clockwork - or did it?  Frieda is still recovering from the injuries and trauma she suffered at the end of the previous book.  She hasn't gone back to her practice and the police have cut their ties with her.  However, Karlsson asks her to walk through the victim's home, as a favor to him, and give her impressions.  Frieda muses that it's like a stage set for a play - where are the secrets?

Meanwhile, the 'official' police psychologist, Dr. Hal Bradshaw, has offered his opinion of the case and made Karlsson despise him even more.  Bradshaw, who has a definite grudge against Frieda, spends quite a bit of the book trying to make Frieda look bad to not only the police 'brass' but to the world in general through various means.  He really crosses a line.

There is another storyline meandering it's way through the book that relates to a retired investigative journalist who follow some leads concerning several missing women.  No one is interested in the journalist's story, but he persists and Frieda, who finds herself pursuing the same cold case, meets the man and joins forces.  All of Frieda's friends, many of whom we've met in the first two books, are worried about her.  She's become obsessed with her hunches and secretive about them.  What's wrong with Frieda?

Waiting For Wednesday has a lot going on - many threads that seems unrelated at first.  Also, Frieda, who really hasn't had time to heal and recover sufficiently, is beset by friends and family who need her to help them over and over.  Her home, which is her shelter, is 'invaded' by bathroom renovations, a teenage niece and her friends, old colleagues who stop by way too often, and even members of Karlsson's team.  I will admit that everyone seemed really selfish to me and uncaring about how all of this was affecting Frieda's life.  She, as usual, was calm, undemanding, guilt-ridden at times for things that were out of her control, and then finally more than a little strange.  I was worried for her too.

By the end, the action was breathless and that's all I'll say.  Will I read the next book?  Yes, I will.  Right away.  I managed to get Thursday's Children at a used bookstore, as it has not been published in the US yet.  Dr. Frieda Klein is becoming one of my favorite protagonists.  I still don't feel we know much about why she has this compulsion to rescue everyone, while remaining unnaturally calm herself.  One day, that calm is going to crack.  And maybe then we'll know.  I'll leave you with a quote that spoke to me:

Human beings have an ability to survive by burying the past, making themselves forget...But Frieda couldn't make herself believe that.  You had to face the truth, however painful, and move on from there.  Burying it didn't make it die, and in the end it would claw its way out of the earth and come for you.