It’s been a while since I’ve checked in on the Dublin Murder Squad. One thing I like about Tana French is that she isn’t as prolific as many mystery writers are, making it fun to reacquaint oneself with the setting and some of the characters. I didn’t like the last book, The Secret Place, quite as much as earlier books, partly because the story was all about teenagers and that I found detective Antoinette Conway too angry and paranoid. I wasn’t sure what to expect […]
You can never go home again
A spring evening in 1985, nineteen-year-old Frank Mackie is waiting impatiently outside for his girlfriend Rosie Daly, as they plan to elope and move to London, making a new life for themselves away from the hard life of the Dublin working poor. When she doesn’t show, Frank goes looking for her in the abandoned house a few door down, and finds a note that suggests she’s gone off without him. As Frank’s father is a violent drunk, his mother is neurotic and shrewish and his […]
Let’s take a moment to fangirl over Tana French
2016 was a shit year, no doubt about it. But perhaps the least shitty thing to come out of it was my love of Tana French. I won’t even apologize for gushing about her so much guys. If you haven’t read her books, you can’t understand. I read her first book way back in January and finished up her last one in December. It’s a tough call, but The Trespasser is the best of the bunch and that’s really saying something. Reallllllly saying something. I […]
Keeping things interesting
3.5 stars. The Secret Place was somewhat of a departure for Tana French. I’m not sure if it was quite as successful for me personally, but it makes me really happy to know she’s experimenting and keeping things fresh. She could just churn out novels and people would read them even with diminishing returns at this point. It makes me love her all the more to know that she has no intention of phoning it in. Detective Stephen Moran is surprised one morning to see […]