Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this arc!!

I really enjoyed this book. More than I thought I would. I liked the characters! Great writing style and I liked the storyline. This book kept me guessing. I finished it in one sitting.

What a tense story! I found it quite disturbing at times to see the world through the eyes of Nancy North, a woman with a managed mental illness whose boyfriend and partner treats as if she's an unexploded bomb, cautious and controlling. Because Nancy lost her restaurant after a humiliating breakdown and hospitalization, they've moved to a dismal flat in a building that's neglected by the landlord and inhabited by unpleasant people. Almost immediately, after Nancy has had a frightening experience with her hallucinations, she meets a neighbor who seems to be telling her she's in danger, but after the young woman is found hanging in her apartment, everyone (including slapdash police investigators) assume it was suicide. Nancy isn't so sure, but as she tries to explain her encounter she's not believed because of the illness her partner keeps telling everyone about in a weird solicitous way. It's not until a Met detective meets Nancy and takes her seriously (both what she witnessed and how frustratingly controlling her partner is) does anyone bother to properly investigate the death.

I was a touch skeptical when the boyfriend has her sectioned in a harrowing episode; in the US the equivalent involves the courts and usually a long, long wait for a bed because they are in such short supply, but after poking around this doesn't seem at all unrealistic for the UK setting.

The authors have done a marvelous job with characters and pacing. At first, it's not at all clear that Nancy is a reliable witness, and the boyfriend seems not unreasonably worried about her. But before long its clear what's really going on, and the depiction of being both disbelieved and treated as a dangerously delusional person (who we gradually realize is in a classically abusive relationship) is brilliantly done, as is the sympathetic and realistic portrayal of what it's like to live with what sounds like a mild form of schizophrenia. I'm also delighted to see the detective first portrayed in Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter return - Maud is a keeper, and I hope will be back.

There's something a touch Gothic in the setup, but it's also wonderfully contemporary with a feminist orientation. Really excellent. I've just talked myself into five stars.

I really liked this book and was moved by the sincere care and empathy with which the authors treated the female characters. There are two connected, but parallel, storylines in this novel. We meet the protagonist Nancy North, a chef, just as she is coming out of an involuntary stay at psychiatric institution and recovering from an unnamed illness that had made her hallucinate and hear voices. She has lost her restaurant and, as a result, Nancy and her partner Felix are moving out to a smaller, grotty apartment in West London. Kira Mullan is another tenant in said apartment building. Nancy meets her briefly, and Kira is found hanging from the rafters in her apartment the next day. Nancy becomes convinced that Kira was murdered, but everyone else seems convinced that she’s having episodes and that Kira had committed suicide.

As I said, I deeply appreciated the authors’ characterization of the women in this novel, even the unpleasant ones. I found the solution genuinely surprising and also appreciated the realistic portrayal of the Met. For much of the book, I was incredibly worried about Nancy and wanted her to survive her nightmarish situation. I will definitely be reading the next novel in the Maud O’Connor series! 4/5 stars.

Thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for letting me read an ARC of this book.

So glad to see that we have a new Nicci French series starring Maud (thought last book was a one off)!!! But the real star of the show is Nancy North, who endeavors to solve this crime despite some mental health challenges. Can we have another series with Nancy? Loved this one!

I had all the chills reading this story. I had to stop so many times to try and process it. It was just so fantastic! I loved it. I was so taken back by how the ending came about.

Engaging and entertaining - as expected. A recommended purchase for collections where crime and thrillers are popular.

I seem to always enjoy the books by this team. I found this to be well structured, lots of different story lines, lots of hints that I reflected upon after I finished the story. Good story and good message.

I read the first book in this series, "Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter" and loved it. I was so happy to discover that there was a second book, and a series! Although I will point out that I think The Last Days of Kira Mullan would work fine as a stand alone. I had a tiny bit of trouble at the beginning deciding what I thought; but then I was hooked! Another good story, and I enjoy Maud and her style so much. Thank you NetGalley for this ARC.

Firstly, I enjoyed the first book of the Maud O'Connor series: "Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?" and I honestly jumped at the chance to read another Maud O'Connor book without hesitation because I loved the tough, brilliant, smart, observant, self-reliant, capable detective inspector who catches the details no one sees and helps women who have been forgotten or neglected.

This time, Maud's part intertwines with an unreliable woman, Nancy North, who is going through trauma, having been hospitalized twice and being watched like a hawk by her extra-protective boyfriend Felix and a group of her neighbors. These neighbors leave a bad taste in your mouth with their unlikable attitudes and their insistence that Nancy is unhinged and that anything she says can't be taken seriously.
Interestingly, Nancy insists she's the last person who saw a presumed suicide victim alive, a woman who lived in the same apartment building. She claims the victim wanted her help before she died because she was scared of someone. The trouble with this conviction is that when Nancy saw Kira Mullan on the street the day she died, Nancy was also in the middle of an episode, feeling like she was walking on air and hearing voices, which raises more questions about her statement.

From the beginning of the book, we see how Nancy struggles with her mental illness, taking her pills, seeing her psychiatrist, doing everything to cure herself. Her boyfriend's suffocating protectiveness, which pushes him to tell everyone about her episodes with exaggeration, raises red flags. Unfortunately, all the inhabitants of the apartment building - including a middle-aged couple, a gym trainer who insists she tried to seduce him, the married couple with a nonstop crying kid, and the young man who spends his time playing video games - think she should be put in a cage like a wild animal, having no intention of helping her.

Until their paths cross with Maud, who is trying to move on with her life, attending law classes and meeting a charismatic stranger, having no idea Nancy's stopping at the station to talk to someone about reopening Kira's case. When they finally meet, you feel a little relieved about Nancy's well-being, as she has finally found a supporter who can believe in her.

From the beginning, we know Kira Mullan didn't hang herself; somebody killed her. As the tension builds about Nancy's struggle to make somebody hear her voice while everyone in her circle tries to shut her up, you may start guessing that anyone in this apartment could be a killer, having secret agendas as they keep blaming Nancy as unreliable when it's the other way around!

Overall: This is one of the most tense readings I've had lately. The mental health awareness is perfectly represented. The gaslighting, paranoia, and abuse are sensitive subjects that the author perfectly approached as well. I couldn't put it down even though it truly made me nervous. I truly loved Maud O'Connor and her straightforward approach to interrogation, her sharpened senses, her ability to see the details and piece together puzzles. I'm definitely looking forward to reading more of her adventures if one of my favorite writer duos gives life to them.

This one is even more brilliant than the first book, which also highly deserved my full obsession. Five manipulative stars!

Many thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for sharing this unputdownable masterpiece's digital reviewer copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.