The French Girl by Lexie Elliott

The French Girl by Lexie Elliott
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

She appears, lithe and tanned, by the swimming pool one afternoon. Severine - the girl next door. It was supposed to be a final celebration for six British graduates, the perfect French getaway, until she arrived. Severine's beauty captivates each of them in turn. Under the heat of a summer sky, simmering tensions begin to boil over - years of jealousy and longing rising dangerously to the surface.

And then Severine disappears.

A decade later, Severine's body is found at the farmhouse. For Kate Channing, the discovery brings up more than just unwelcome memories. As police suspicion mounts against the friends, Kate becomes desperate to resolve her own shifting understanding of that time. But as the layers of deception reveal themselves, Kate must ask herself - does she really want to know what happened to the French girl?

A pleasant enough read, pace is somewhat slower than I like which does affect the outcome for me.

Six British graduates spend a holiday in France after they have graduated at a pretty farmhouse to relax and enjoy themselves before they embark on different careers and paths. The story hinges around the mademoiselle from next door Sevrine who appears to have 'adopted' the group and spends most of their holiday with them.

The disappearance of Sevrine at the and of the holiday seems odd but not particularly worrying until a decade later when her body is found in a well near the cottage. Obviously someone is hiding something and the French police are not going to be satisfied until they can find a motive and a murderer. One of the group Theo is already dead but the rest are subject to intense scrutiny and the pressure is uncovering secrets and lies about that last day in France. With each of the group looking more closely at each other friendships become strained. Kate is beginning to visualise Sevrine everywhere she goes, being haunted by the girl she didn't particularly like and also causing Kate to re-visit a painful romance with Seb that ended on the last day of the holiday.

It is a psychological thriller, not the best I've read but it does have enough (just) to keep the reader going. The ending was somewhat predictable but I felt it didn't address a few issues whether this was intentional or not it did leave it a bit flat at the end. Not the real tension building thriller that I like, it lacked suspense and for me made it all rather predictable, I was hoping for a real twist at the end but it didn't arrive so a bit disappointing. Characterisation was ok although we didn't really get 'into' the characters, I liked Laura probably the best of the group.

If you want a pleasant holiday read with no real brain gymnastics than this is one for you but because I like my thrillers with more pace and suspense I can only give this 3 stars. I would like to thank the publisher for sending this in exchange for an honest review.