Unflinching

One of the best parts of reading Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad books (and there are many best parts, I’ve gotta say) is that you can dive into any of them and get nearly the full experience and feeling even if you haven’t read all of them.
I started with The Secret Place last year and snatched The Trespasser up as soon as I saw it was available on Libby from my library. It was a good thing that I had it on my phone, because I wanted to be reading it every available second once I had started.

This sixth instalment in the Dublin Murder Squad finds Det. Antoinette Conway in a tough spot at work. Besides her partner, nobody seems to want her on the squad, and she’s suffering nasty workplace pranks. Antoinette is tough, hardened by her job and wary of her coworkers, and when the murder of Aislinn Murray is added to her workload, she at first thinks it’s a run-of-the-mill domestic. She soon realizes, however, that she’s seen Aislinn somewhere before, and that too many things aren’t adding up neatly in what should be a routine case. Antoinette knows that the treatment she’s gotten on the squad could be negatively influencing her work on the case, but there’s always the chance when you’re paranoid that someone really is out to get you.

This book is a mystery tour de force. The characters are sharply drawn and even when you don’t like them, you want to know what happens to them. The plot is twisty, smart and has an ingenious solution to the mystery, and the writing is just top-notch. It’s a real page-turner that you won’t want to put down.