House of correction

Tabitha Hardy, prone to depression, is having a bad day, but it gets significantly worse when the stabbed body of Stuart Rees is found in her shed. She didn't feel well that day and later remembers little about it, but she's charged with murder and jailed. Her attorney--angry that Tabitha had not disclosed either her history of depression or her past relationship with Rees, her former math teacher, who had sex with her when she was 15--urges Tabitha to plead guilty to manslaughter. But Tabitha, claiming innocence, fires the attorney, electing to represent herself. It's a daunting job, but it helps her case when she learns that Rees, portrayed as the heart and soul of the village, was actually widely disliked; still, Tabitha wants to identify the actual murderer and gets crucial help from her former cellmate. The writing team of Nicci Gerrard and Sean French delivers another winner (following The Living Room, 2019), combining an impeccably constructed, secrecy-prone English village with masterful plotting and an indefatigable protagonist who carries on, no matter the cost.

Accused murderer Tabitha Hardy, the protagonist of this ambitious standalone from the pseudonymous French (the Frieda Klein series), starts with two strikes against her. First, the London copy editor impulsively fires her court-appointed counsel and demands to represent herself against the charge that within weeks of moving home to remote Okeham, England, she fatally stabbed neighbor Stuart Rees, her secondary school math teacher, who abused her when she was 15. Second, though Tabitha believes herself incapable of killing anybody, she can't remember much of the fateful day. And so the stage is set for a suspenseful battle of wits and wills, as the vulnerable loner takes on the Crown Prosecutor and her own often self-defeating psychology. Though Tabitha's depressive personality palls over the course of 500 pages, one can't help rooting for her. French, the British husband-and-wife writing team of Nicci Gerrard and Sean French, seamlessly shifts from prison drama to procedural to legal thriller--and finally to an ingenious twist on the locked-room mystery. French continues to impress. Agent: Agent: Joy Harris, Joy Harris Literary. (Oct.)