House of Correction

More Information & Critical Reviews

Nicci French is the pseudonym for the writing partnership of journalists Nicci Gerrard and Sean French. Nicci Gerrard was born in June 1958 in Worcestershire, England. After graduating with a first class honours degree in English Literature from Oxford University, she began her first job, working with emotionally disturbed children in Sheffield. In 1989 she became acting literary editor at the New Statesman, before moving to the Observer, where she was deputy literary editor for five years, and then a feature writer and executive editor. It was while she was at the New Statesman that she met Sean French. She has individually written eight novels (as of 2017). Sean French was born in May 1959 in Bristol, to a British father and Swedish mother. He too studied English Literature at Oxford University at the same time as Nicci, also graduating with a first class degree, but their paths didn’t cross until 1990. In 1981 he won Vogue magazine’s Writing Talent Contest, and from 1981 to 1986 he was their theatre critic. During that time he also worked at the Sunday Times as deputy literary editor and television critic, and was the film critic for Marie Claire and deputy editor of New Society. Sean and Nicci were married in Hackney in October 1990. Their daughters were born in 1991 and 1993.

‘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.’ Publishers Weekly

‘Another winner…combining an impeccably constructed, secrecy-prone English village with masterful plotting and an indefatigable protagonist who carries on, no matter the cost.’ Booklist

‘This house of correction is booby-trapped with twists, the floors paved with trapdoors, quicksand churning in the garden. Enter if you dare.’ A.J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window