Tana French – take my money.

I have been recommending Tana French ad nauseum every time someone asks me for a book recommendation, ever since I discovered her delightful series in 2007. I have two left to read and I purposefully wait as looong as I can manage before reading one because they are so good and knowing I have one on the horizon makes me happy. That being said, imagine my delight as I’m perusing the “Hot Picks” aisle at my local library and see she has a new one out! And it is not part of the Dublin Murder Squad series, so I can jump right in. “No renewals on this one, as it is a hot pick” says the librarian. Yeah. That’s not going to be a problem.

After reading The Witch Elm I can say my fandom and devotion is still intact. She has delivered another riveting thriller, of which I can’t say much because I don’t want to ruin any surprises. There was an excellent review featured over on the mothership, so if you want more content I encourage you to check it out. French is adept at creating rich whole characters, none of them usually ending up terribly likable, but she always slowly peels back the layers and adds detail so that your allegiance changes sides. In addition, she has taken the concept of an unreliable narrator and really ran with it in a way I haven’t seen before, so the reader is really helpless when it comes to drawing any conclusions.

As is typical with her books, this one starts dark and keeps getting darker: if you are looking for a happy ending, look elsewhere. But if, like me, you like something gripping and shocking to get you through the winter months, run, don’t walk to your library/local bookstore/Amazon.