Title: The Last Days of Kira Mullan

Author: Nicci French

Genre: Psychological Thriller

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Publication Date: 16th January 2025

Rating: 4/5

Cover:

Summary:

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 isall 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?  

Review:

I hadn’t realised before starting this book that it actually includes one of the characters from Nicci French’s previous thriller Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter, which I really enjoyed, so that was a nice surprise! Police detectives Maud had a role to play in The Last Days of Kira Mullan and it was good to see her again as I love her straightforward no nonsense approach to investigation. The main narrative, however, focuses on a young woman, Nancy North, who has moved to a new home with her boyfriend after a psychiatric breakdown. Just after they move in, the woman in the downstairs flat seemingly takes her own life. However, Nancy believes there is more to the story and struggles to get anyone to take her seriously because of her mental health problems. 

This is a very intense and often rather harrowing read, especially concerning Nancy’s experience as someone with mental health issues. It is also a terrifyingly realistic representation of the insidious nature of gaslighting and coercive control within relationships. Nancy may not be one hundred percent reliable as a narrator in every sense but it is easy to root for her as she fights for justice for a woman whom she did not know. Overall, The Last Days of Kira Mullan is an intense, dark, anger inducing and emotional psychological thriller that is difficult to put down. 

★★★★

Thank you so much to Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours for inviting me on this tour and organising it. I kindly received a copy of the book from the publisher. My review is entirely my own honest opinion.

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