Rating: 
Summary: Dont waste your time on this book - read "Beneath the skin"
Review: I read "Beneath the skin" by Nicci French a year ago and couldnt put it down, because it was suspenseful and cleverly written."Red Room" surprised me - I would not have thought that the same author can write such a listless, quite boring novel. The characters are not well crafted. The book starts off quite tense and promises a lot, but then loses itself in cluelessly plotted scenes, in which the protagonist doesnt receive any information (like the reader). At the end, there awaits some constructed solution, which is not presented in any thriller-like fassion. The quasi-love story, which accompanies the story, bored the hell out of me. Please, dear Mrs. French! Do not feel pressurized by your publisher! Take your time! Think that you really want to write a great book like "Beneath the skin" again and dont dissapoint us again. Thanks Martin
Rating: 
Summary: Great Read!
Review: I will say I expected more from the ending but it was still a great novel. Couldn't put it down. I felt I knew the main character, I could easily relate.
Rating: 
Summary: Not her best
Review: I would like to give this book 3 1/2 stars but I can't! I loved NF's earlier books but found The Red Room a bit of a disappointment. It starts out well, promising a novel full of tension and suspense, but never really lives up to earlier novels such as 'Beneath the Skin'. Much is made on the cover blurb of the heroine being attacked and scarred - but this hardly features in the novel at all and the guy who attacked her never makes a convincing bogeyman - he always seems a bit pathetic to me. Still worth reading, but I hope it doesn't mark the beginning of a downward spiral - these days there are so few decent authors about!
Rating:
Summary: Not at all compelling
Review: I've read other Nicci French books, and this one was very disappointing. There was nothing compelling about the book, and I didn't really care about the characters. I did finish it, but wished I hadn't bothered with it.
Rating:
Summary: Another great thriller!
Review: Nicci French has this endless dark imagination! Although the name of the book seems decieving after having read it, the book never the less kept me going till the end. She writes so well I forget that it's 4'oclock in the morning and have to get to bed! I just have to finish it!
Rating: 
Summary: Nicci French has done it again!
Review: Nicci French has written another wonderful trilling novel. The begining was a little harder to get into than her other novels. But still worth it. I couldn't put this book down. There is so many twist and turns that you just want to find out who did it and why. I doesn't quite make sense until the very end and she hits you with another twist. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys mysteries and pshyco thillers. If you enjoy Nicci French You must read "Benenth the Skin" That is her best novel!
Rating:
Summary: Fine novel that peters out somewhat.
Review: Nicci French, The Red Room (Mysterious Press, 2001) I've heard a number of times that The Red Room is just plain not as good as French's previous blockbuster, the much-loved Beneath the Skin. I don't really agree. While The Red Room is marred by something of a weak ending, the novel does its thing just as well as Beneath the Skin did. And the latter was such a cleverly-executed concept that expecting any mystery novel to hold up in comparison is probably a bit unfair. The plot centers around a psychologist, Kit Carson, who every once in a while consults for the local police force. During one such consultation, a mentally challenged chap named Michael Doll shatters a coffee mug and uses it to scar Kit's face. Once she's back to work, the police bring her in on a murder where they believe Doll to be the perp, to give her a bit of closure. She ends up thinking he's innocent and starts going after the real killer, while the police keep trying to pin it on Doll. There is much to this, and what's in the novel is good. There could have been more of what's in the novel; the relationship that develops between Kit and Michael is handled in a kind of easy-way-out tone, rather than exploring the places it had the potential to go. The police officers also seem to shift a little too quickly from solicitous to annoyed; the town has the word's first all-manic-depressive police squad (wouldn't be to out of place in an Ian Rankin novel, but here it feels less like quirks and more like shallow characters). But everything moves along, the plot strings are juggled deftly, and everything is tied up in a neat little bow at the end of the game. Worth checking out for French fans, but those who have not yet been introduced should probably go with Beneath the Skin. ***
Rating:
Summary: Rich characters, atmospheric writing
Review: Savagely attacked by a disturbed suspect in police custody, London psychiatrist Kit Quinn is left with a cheek-bisecting scar and recurring nightmares of a red, blood-spattered room where the things she most fears lurk. While understandably leery when asked three months later to evaluate the same man, now suspected of a brutal murder, Kit agrees, partly to face those fears. But she baffles and infuriates the police with her conviction that Michael Doll, however twisted and repugnant he may be, is not the killer. Spinning out a complex plot in which Kit finds herself drawn into the life of Lianne, the murdered homeless girl, French (actually a husband-and-wife writing team) delivers a suspenseful, ruminative exploration of loneliness, alienation and unspoken fears in this third novel. While probing the girl's short life, Kit begins an affair with the brooding, antisocial director of an ask-no-questions homeless shelter, Will Pavic. Still reeling from a recent painful break-up, Kit is cautious but full of longing. Michael Doll's desire is clumsier. He begins to stalk Kit, following her, waiting outside her house, making heart-wrenching and scary appeals for her attention. "He was like my recurring nightmare, come to squat in the corner of my flat." Another woman is murdered, an affluent, attractive, blond mother and Lianne is all but forgotten. Until Kit tenuously links the two murders. The police scoff, convinced Doll's attack scarred her wits as well as her face, but Kit doggedly pursues her "feeling," trying to find a connection between the two disparate women. No surprise, the smug police get their comeuppance but not before considerable more harm is done. French, reminiscent of Minette Walters or Frances Fyfield, creates rich characters, believable in a wide range of opacity, deceptiveness, derangement and anguish as well as more ordinary day-to-day behaviors. The plot is thoroughly perplexing and the ending caps the suspense nicely, with one last turn of the psychological knife.
Rating:
Summary: Where our nightmares become reality...
Review: The Red Room is a story of mystery and intrigue, yet it's so much more than your basic mystery novel. It entwines suspense and fear with human fragility and the need for meaning.
The plot revolves around the murders of two women in London. Though seemingly unrelated, there is one feature they share: the police's belief that a convicted pedophile by the name of Michael Doll is responsible for them. Clinical Psychologist Dr. Kit Quinn is asked by the police to give a psychological evaluation of Doll during the police investigation, during which Doll smashes a mug and uses it to scar Kit's face. When she returns from the hospital and the cases have escalated, Kit is more inclined than ever to prove to the police what she believes Michael Doll is - innocent. While the book focuses mainly on the murders and the suspects, you can't help but realize that the underlying issue is the effect that the accident had of Kit's self-confidence, shattering it and immersing her in self-doubt and loss of self. Her intense interest in the case seems to stem not only from her care for the victims, but also from her need to prove she's still competent and to take her mind off her own problems. In order to solve the crimes though, she'll need to piece herself back together before she can help the police. While Nicci French works overtime to build up the sordid web that is the plot, the ending isn't as fulfilling as one would hope and occasionally the plot seems to get sidetracked. Also, the main character is not quite as open as one might like her to be, causing frustration at times considering the novel is told in first person tense. The hunt for the killer and the complexity of the character relationships still make it a worthwhile and addictive read. The title of the book comes from a dream Kit has while she was recovering in the hospital. It is a metaphor for the center of all the fears we carry, a place inside all of us where our nightmares become reality. Basically, the book succeeds in what it sets out for. Showing us that the only way to escape our fears is to enter the "red room" and face them.
Rating:
Summary: Where our nightmares become reality...
Review: The Red Room is a story of mystery and intrigue, yet it's so much more than your basic mystery novel. It entwines suspense and fear with human fragility and the need for meaning.
The plot revolves around the murders of two women in London. Though seemingly unrelated, there is one feature they share: the police's belief that a convicted pedophile by the name of Michael Doll is responsible for them. Clinical Psychologist Dr. Kit Quinn is asked by the police to give a psychological evaluation of Doll during the police investigation, during which Doll smashes a mug and uses it to scar Kit's face. When she returns from the hospital and the cases have escalated, Kit is more inclined than ever to prove to the police what she believes Michael Doll is - innocent. While the book focuses mainly on the murders and the suspects, you can't help but realize that the underlying issue is the effect that the accident had of Kit's self-confidence, shattering it and immersing her in self-doubt and loss of self. Her intense interest in the case seems to stem not only from her care for the victims, but also from her need to prove she's still competent and to take her mind off her own problems. In order to solve the crimes though, she'll need to piece herself back together before she can help the police. While Nicci French works overtime to build up the sordid web that is the plot, the ending isn't as fulfilling as one would hope and occasionally the plot seems to get sidetracked. Also, the main character is not quite as open as one might like her to be, causing frustration at times considering the novel is told in first person tense. The hunt for the killer and the complexity of the character relationships still make it a worthwhile and addictive read. The title of the book comes from a dream Kit has while she was recovering in the hospital. It is a metaphor for the center of all the fears we carry, a place inside all of us where our nightmares become reality. Basically, the book succeeds in what it sets out for. Showing us that the only way to escape our fears is to enter the "red room" and face them.
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