Of Nicci French’s six novels three deal with the subjugation of women by an aberrant man. Now the seventh tips the scale by making four out of seven. At least in the last novel, The Land of the Living, and in Secret Smile the heroines do not knuckle under; but one cannot help wondering whose fantasies — worst fear for women or a de Sade-style inclination in men — the husband and wife team that is Nicci French is addressing. I would guess that it is mostly women who read the novels, as they have yet to have a male protagonist.
Miranda, the heroine of Secret Smile, is a nice girl in the building trade. Pretty, a bit dusty and paint-spattered, she meets her nemesis on a skating-rink. Casually attracted, she goes out with Brendon a couple of times, has sex in a flat with him another two times and is disconcerted when his toothbrush appears beside hers.
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