Land Of The Living by Nicci French

Abbie Devereaux wakes without knowing where she is.  What she does know is that she cannot see as there is a hood over her head.  She cannot move as she is tied hand and foot and with a wire around her neck.  She doesn't know how she got to this place or what will happen.  Until her captor takes the time to tell her what he plans to do and how she will never know anything else until her death.

Miraculously Abbie manages to escape.  She is taken to the hospital, dehydrated, bruised and with huge memory gaps.  The police come and take her story.  She tells them of the five women's name her captor kept repeating and that those women are others he has kidnapped in the past and killed.  Things take a turn she didn't expect though.  It turns out that no one realized she was missing.  She had just quit a job and broken up with her longtime boyfriend so no one knew she had dropped out of her normal routines.  Since she can't remember how she ended up captured and the police can't find any evidence of where she was held, the decision is that Abbie has made up the entire story either seeking attention or because she is having a breakdown.

She is released from the hospital, determined to find out what happened in the missing days leading to her capture and prove the police and doctors wrong.  That determination becomes even more important when it becomes clear that the man who took her now considers her an even bigger threat and is actively looking for her to silence her.  How ironic that the only one who believes her is the one who wants to put an end to her.  Can Abbie find her captor before he finds her?

Fans are familiar with the work of Nicci French, a husband/wife writing team composed of Nicci Gerrard and Sean French.  They write novels of psychological suspense, both a series about a psychologist named Freida Klein and stand-alone novels.  This is one of the stand alone novels and readers will find lots of twists and turns in Abbie's story.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.