Blue Monday by Nicci French (thoughts)

Summary from Goodreads:

"The abduction of five-year-old Matthew Farraday provokes a national outcry and a desperate police hunt. And when a picture of his face is splashed over the newspapers, psychotherapist Frieda Klein is left troubled: one of her patients has been relating dreams in which he has a hunger for a child. A child he can describe in perfect detail, a child the spitting image of Matthew.

Detective Chief Inspector Karlsson doesn't take Frieda's concerns seriously until a link emerges with an unsolved child abduction twenty years ago and he summons Frieda to interview the victim's sister, hoping she can stir hidden memories. Before long, Frieda is at the center of the race to track the kidnapper.

But her race isn't physical. She must chase down the darkest paths of a psychopath's mind to find the answers to Matthew Farraday's whereabouts.

And sometimes the mind is the deadliest place to lose yourself."

My Thoughts:

I'm so pumped about this series after finishing this book!  Last year I read and adored Dark Saturday which is a later book in this series.  I've been meaning to go back to the first book every since then and thank goodness that I finally did.  I started and finished this book in one day.  A day in which my husband was having shoulder surgery so that should tell you how compelling that I found this book!  I was able to lose myself in it despite everything that was going on.  It was the perfect distraction and way to keep me from just sitting there worrying (like I'm prone to do).  It's funny but having read a later book in this series first, I could see how this book sets everything up for books to come.  We meet characters that are still in those later books and a bad guy like no other.  I know that I'm missing pieces but they will all fall into place as I continue to catch up on this series.  I should have listened to some of blogger friends and started reading this series years ago!  In this book, Frieda gets involved in the search of a kidnapped boy - a kidnapping that is starting to seem like it is related to another kidnapping over twenty years ago.  Frieda is such a great main character and I really enjoy reading about her.  She is a bit of a mystery in that she just seems so distanced from those around her.  She walks at all hours of the night and as the reader I could never quite get a feel of what is going on in that head of hers.  I loved it though because I am so intrigued by her!  I never know what to expect from her and that's a good thing in my opinion.  The mystery portion of this book was so completely well done and unexpected.  I don't want to give anything away but if you like a good twist (as seems to be so popular nowadays) then check this book out!  I can honestly say that I won't be waiting long to continue on with book two because I just NEED to see what happens next!

Overall, I basically loved my time with this book which is really all you need to know.  It was such a compelling thriller, and has pushed both this series and author to my must read list.  I've heard that the eighth book is going to be the last one which is a bummer only in that I enjoy these characters so much.  That being said I still have a good number of this author's books to catch up on before then and hopefully they will continue to write other books in the future.  I'm basically gushing at this point but this is a series and author to definitely to check out in my opinion.  I can highly recommend to both thriller and mystery fans alike.  Trigger warning in that this book features a kidnapped child - I'm sure that isn't something that all readers will want to read about so thought I would give you a heads up.  Highly recommended otherwise though!

Bottom Line:  An amazing beginning to what is now fast becoming a favorite series of mine (and I've only read two books in it)!

Disclosure:  I checked this book out from my local library.