The Last Days of Kira Mullan

You must sign in to see if this title is available for request. Sign In or Register Now
Send NetGalley books directly to your Kindle or Kindle app

1
To read on a Kindle or Kindle app, please add kindle@netgalley.com as an approved email address to receive files in your Amazon account. Click here for step-by-step instructions.
2
Also find your Kindle email address within your Amazon account, and enter it here.
Pub Date 12 Feb 2025 | Archive Date 16 Jan 2025
Simon and Schuster UK | Simon & Schuster UK

Talking about this book? Use #TheLastDaysofKiraMullan #NetGalley. More hashtag tips!


Description

She thinks it was murder. 
But if she can’t trust herself, can anyone else?  


Nancy North and her boyfriend Felix are making the move across London to Harlesden. A new flat, a new area, a new start. Because while Nancy is fine now, she wasn’t fine before. But settling into the new flat and meeting the new neighbours isn’t helped by Felix’s hovering concern. She is all right. She is sticking to her breathing exercises and doctor-prescribed help.  

So, when their new neighbour Kira Mullan is found dead by suicide, Felix is understandably worried about Nancy’s frame of mind. But Nancy saw Kira the day before she died and she didn’t strike her as someone who was suicidal – she was upset and angry, yes, but was she upset and angry enough to take her own life?  

Nancy is the only one convinced that there’s more to Kira’s death than has been discovered. But all the police and the neighbours see is a vulnerable woman who isn’t sure of what she saw, and might even be imagining things . . .  

Is Nancy imagining things, or are there more questions that should be asked about the last days of Kira Mullan?  

'A heroine you'll be rooting for on every page and a forensic study of gaslighting. Pure literary adrenaline’ Erin Kelly
She thinks it was murder. 
But if she can’t trust herself, can anyone else?  


Nancy North and her boyfriend Felix are making the move across London to Harlesden. A new flat, a new area, a new start...

Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9781398524132
PRICE £18.99 (GBP)
PAGES 448

Available on NetGalley

NetGalley Shelf App (PDF)
Send to Kindle (PDF)
Download (PDF)

Average rating from 15 members


Featured Reviews

I feel like to sum this I could just say that it's by far the best book I've read all year and leave it at that!

I've been a fan of "Nicci French" books for a long time so always go into the new ones with my expectations high but this truly surpassed anything I could have envisaged. The writing flows perfectly and before you know it, you're completely invested in the plot and can't stop until there are no more pages to turn.

The characters are vividly brought to life and given depth, personality and layers. These become real people, living their real lives and you feel like you're just watching everything unfold.

The plot is genius! It's so well crafted, perfectly plotted out and is constantly moving forward. There's never any waffle or filler, never anything that's not actually relevant, even if you don't realise it at the time

And the twists and turns?!perfectly executed. It really is an honour to read a book like this and I loved every second of it

Was this review helpful?

What a read! Such a difficult subject to tackle, mental health, but Nicci French has done an outstanding job, giving an insight into how suffers are treated by both friends,loved ones and the professionals.

You end up really routing for Nancy,the main character, certainly didn't expect what Felix,her boyfriend, was doing, but it certainly highlights how probable his actions can be in real life, very frightening too.

A complex, very clever storyline, highly recommend.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read an advanced digital copy in return for an honest review.

Was this review helpful?

Gripping and brilliantly written while taking on some complex subjects. Characters that had you rooting for them and twists and turns throughout! I really enjoyed this book even though the subject of mental health can be a difficult one.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for my ARC

Was this review helpful?

At times, this felt like two different books.
When we were knee deep in Nancy's problems and Felix's response to them, it was as if there was no Maud.No Kira.
But then there was.
It was all Maud and Kira.
Nicci French have been writing books for a very long time, and they always deliver something good.
This one has some good twists, and I enjoyed the mental health aspect. So you didn't really know what Nancy had seen and heard any more than she did.
All threads tie together satisfactorily at the end.
Good job Maud.
See you next time!

Was this review helpful?

This was a brilliant but at times uncomfortable read as most chapters were told thought the eyes of Nancy who has suffered a serious mental illness and as such is considered an unreliable witness when she insists her new neighbour did not take her own life but was murdered. Her chapters were supplemented by detective Maud who initially seems to have little involvement in this. Because of Nancy’s illness it was very difficult to determine if it really was murder or suicide so you’re learning things at the same time she is and it’s hard to see if she’s delusional or not. Nancy was a fabulous character and it came across how frustrating it was that she felt she wasn’t being taken seriously due to her illness but I found it difficult to like her boyfriend and new neighbours, the fact her boyfriend had told all her neighbours about her illness made me extremely uncomfortable. In a lot of ways this was Nancy’s story as much as a potential crime story which made it a very powerful read with many complex threads which were brilliantly woven together.

Was this review helpful?

What a read!

Throughout the book the characters are such that you immediately took to. As a reader i love thisand it made my reading time really enjoyable. This was a book I didn't want to end it was so good.

The writing and stroytelling as always with this author is just superb

There are enough twists and turns to keep you guessing and I loved it.

Was this review helpful?

The Last Days of Kira Mullen is Nicci French’s best work so far. Guaranteed to fill you with rage and dread in equal parts, their portrayal of the many and varied ways in which men treat women badly was brilliantly done and made for compulsive reading.

4.5 stars rounded up to 5.

Was this review helpful?

There are some uncomfortable themes in this book, which lie within the way our society treats people who suffer with a mental illness, and how controlling behaviour can be missed when it concerns someone vulnerable. Nancy, the main protagonist has had a mental breakdown, but when her neighbour supposedly commits suicide and Nancy knows she was murdered, it is verging on impossible for her to get anyone to listen to her - not her partner, police, doctors…….. all believe she is having another psychotic episode and don’t take her seriously. Then just one person begins to think that Nancy may be being very seriously misjudged and an investigation onto Kira’s death finally begins. The story here is absolutely riveting - dark and chilling, becoming more so as the story progresses. Each and every character is superbly drawn and the story has excellent momentum from the first word until the last.

Was this review helpful?

I read this over two longish train journeys, and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's a bit hard to know where to start talking about it, though. Nancy's life has been shattered by mental illness, losing the restaurant she'd started - her life's dream - after a serious psychotic episode. Now, she and boyfriend Felix are moving to another part of London, hopefully for a fresh start. But things go wrong very quickly when a young woman, Kira, living in
the same building apparently commits suicide.

Nancy has reason to believe there's more to Kira's story, but nobody seems to want to listen to her. Indeed, they may go to some lengths to shut her up...

The mental health unit where Nancy is unwillingly detained for part of the story needs to be the subject of an urgent Panorama undercover investigation. I'd hope that Nancy at some point reports them to the proper authorities, because practices there are not only unethical but outright criminal.

It's all too easy for people - the police included - to dismiss anything Nancy says, though, when she's labelled as delusional, paranoid and a potential risk to herself and others. The police in general, apart from one officer - recurring character Maud O'Connor - don't come out of this much better than the mental health services.

I liked Nancy, who is brave and determined in some awful situations and in spite of her fragile mental health. The reader is rooting for her - and for justice for the deceased Kira - throughout.

An excellent read.

Was this review helpful?

Another fabulous read from this talented couple who make up the pseudonym Nicki French. I read this in 2 sittings and it was great to realise this is going to be a detective series with Maud O’Connor as a strong female lead. She was in the previous Nicki French book (Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?) and I loved her in this so it’ll be great to follow her story in future books.

Was this review helpful?

Loved, loved, loved this. I'd read - and also loved - Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter - but I didn't realise this book was part of the same series. So, as well as loving the plot, it was an absolute joy when Maud O'Connor appeared midway through the book. She's a brilliant creation. The plot centres around the death of a young woman called Kira Mullan. At first, everyone assumes Kira's death is suicide. However, her neighbour Nancy North becomes increasingly convinced that Kira was murdered. However, as she's recovering from a psychotic episode that derailed her life, Nancy's neighbours and friends (including her partner, Felix), all think this is another symptom of her mental illness. What follows is a genuinely terrifying insight into stigma around mental illness and the vulnerability of patients in psychiatric hospitals.
As well as exploring some very serious themes, the novel is also perfectly plotted. I honestly had no idea how the authors were going to pull all the different strands together.
A fabulous read. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a chance to read this brilliant book.

Was this review helpful?

Readers who liked this book also liked: