The French Girl

November 20, 2017
The discovery of the remains of a young woman named Severine, a decade after she disappeared from her Dordogne home, jump-starts a murder investigation in British author Elliott’s engrossing, if flawed, debut. It also stirs up memories for six Oxford University chums who got to know Severine during a week they spent at a Dordogne farmhouse. Hardest hit by the news is London legal recruiter Kate, who has never quite managed to get over her breakup after the aforementioned holiday with dashing Seb, a split hastened by his fascination with the elegant, enigmatic Severine. Already stressed trying to get her own headhunting firm off the ground and by the imminent return (after years in the U.S.) of both the now-married Seb and his cousin Tom—to whom she has always felt a never-pursued attraction—Kate really starts to lose it, to the point of seeing Severine’s ghost. Elliott has come up with a promising premise and intriguing, if somewhat stereotypical characters, but ultimately doesn’t seem to know quite what to do with them. Agent: Marcy Posner, Folio Literary Management.

December 1, 2017
Six Oxford students vacation at a French farmhouse, where they meet Severine, a sexy neighbor who disrupts the friends' relationships. Then Severine disappears the same day the friends leave for home. Ten years later the girl's body is found, and the friends must account for the last hours they all spent together. When it comes out that Kate Channing's boyfriend slept with the missing girl the night before the friends left, Kate appears to have a motive. Kate knows she didn't kill the girl, so the question remains: Which one of her friends did and is now willing to stand by and watch Kate get accused of the crime? Kate may be a formidable legal recruiter in her regular life, but, as a murder suspect, her business bravado vanishes, leaving insecurity in its place and forcing Kate to somehow muster the strength to clear herself. Scottish debut novelist Elliott, who holds a doctorate in theoretical physics from Oxford, launches a fiction-writing career with a smart, suspenseful thriller.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

Starred review from December 1, 2017

Ten years ago, six university friends from Oxford enjoyed a week in the French countryside where they met Severine, the girl who lived next door to their farmhouse. Kate, distracted and angry after a huge row with her then-boyfriend, failed to register Severine's presence as important, even when Severine went missing shortly thereafter. In the present, the friends are ensconced in their daily lives when a French detective shows up in London bearing the news that Severine's skeleton has been discovered on the vacation property. This makes Kate start to wonder how well she knows her friends. As the narrator, Kate is smart, funny, and attractive, with some confidence issues, making her relatable. The friends fill the archetypes of supporting characters: the nemesis, the BFF, the ex, and the buddy, but Elliott fleshes them out so well they aren't stereotypical. As the detective continues to dig, the shifting dynamics within the group will keep the reader guessing until the end. VERDICT First novelist Elliott has done a phenomenal job of combining a whodunit with a Big Chill vibe.--Marianne Fitzgerald, Severna Park H.S., MD

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