over this series,
I keep slugging through these books, hoping and hoping that the next one will finally be great, and with every single one I'm let down and disappointed.
Worst of all, I keep thinking about all the other books I'd prefer to be reading, Ok, I think my rant is over,
Another case, another murder for the Dublin Murder Squad this one brings back a few familiar faces with Det, Stephen Moran and Holly Mackey the spry teenager whose father Frank Mackey was the lead detective in a previous book, Chris Harper is bashed over the head and there areannoying girls involved, Who thrashed the detrimental blow UGH who cares
The writing is good, and the characters are fleshed out, but somehow I just cannot connect to the characters or the writing.
I'm thinking that this author is just not for me, These books are way too long and drawn out for an unsatisfactory ending, I honestly stopped caring about who did it halfway through, unfortunately I have a pet peeve about finishing every book I start, so found myself slugging through the end.
Sorry Not Sorry for such a ranty review, The fifth novel by Tana French andin a series narrated by a detective of or working with the Murder Squad in Dublin has the author racking the focus and interfering with the quality control that have made her series such a success.
Opening one of French's novels is an act of treasure hunting, of thrills and wonder, like finding an old wooden chest in an attic and unlocking it to discover intimacy, secrecy, history, betrayal and redemption hidden inside.
French's themes are back in black this time and a couple of artifacts await, but adjustments in her narration and ambiguity about who the protagonist was this time around left me somewhat wanting.
In this followup to In the Woods, The Likeness, Faithful Place and Broken Harbor, French continues a beguiling pattern of retrieving a supporting character from previous novels and casting them as the narrator of the sequel.
Published in, The Secret Place focuses on Detective Stephen Moran, "first in my family to go for a Learning Cert instead of an apprenticeship.
" Moran has been promoted with rapid succession and at the age of thirtytwo, is working on the Cold Cases squad in Dublin.
Ambition is one of Moran's strengths, as well as his greatest potential weakness, and the lad has his laser sights set on Murder.
Opportunity knocks when Holly Mackey, the sixteenyearold daughter of undercover detective Frank Mackey, pays Moran a visit, Six years ago, with events depicted in Faithful Place my favorite French novel so far, by a nose, Moran was plucked out of the floater pool by the devious Mackey to update him on Murder's investigation into the death of Mackey's childhood girlfriend.
In return, Moran took the collar usurping the lead Murder detective and received a recommendation for promotion by Mackey, The case required Moran to prep Holly as a witness for trial,
Holly now brings Moran fresh evidence in the murder of sixteen year old Chris Harper, student at a boys' boarding school adjacent to St.
Kilda's, the girls' school where Holly attends classes and boards during the school term, One year ago, Harper was found by nuns on the grounds of St, Kilda's with his skull bashed in, One of the detectives on the case, Antoinette Conway, questioned Holly and the rest of the students at St, Kilda's no one saw anything, no one heard anything and no explanation for Chris Harper being on the girls' campus was ever determined.
Inside a clear plastic envelope is a plain white card and a thumbtack that Holly removed from a noticeboard outside the art room.
Known as the Secret Place, the board allows the students of St, Kilda's to post anonymous notes as long as names are kept off, The card is a photo of Chris Harper with words cut out of a book, The note reads I know who killed him, A cop's kid to the bone, Holly tells Moran that she discovered the card this morning, cut it off the board with a balsa knife and was careful not to leave her prints on it.
Holly has told no one, Holly wishes to keep it that way, Seeing his big ticket to Murder, Moran goes for a talk with Detective Conway,
Rough, my mam would have called Conway, That Antoinette one, and a sideways look with her chin tucked down: a bit rough, Not meaning her personality, or not just meaning where she came from, and what, The accent told you, and the stare, Dublin, inner city just a quick walk from where I grew up, maybe, but miles away all the same, Tower blocks. IRAwannabe graffiti and puddles of piss, Junkies. People who've never passed an exam in their lives, but had every twist and turn of dole maths down pat, People who wouldn't have approved of Conway's career choice,
Quicktempered when it comes to the boys club and their banter, Conway has been ostracized by the men of the Murder Squad.
She has no steady partner and no intention of taking on Moran as one, He's insistent. "You said yourself you got nowhere with Holly Mackey and her mates, But she likes me enough, or trusts me enough, that she brought me this, And if she'll talk to me, she'll get her mates talking to me, " Hearing something in his accent or maybe what he has to say, Conway agrees to let Moran tag along as she returns to St.
Kilda's to ask some questions,
The novel forks away from Moran amp Conway to move back in time to the months and weeks leading up to Chris Harper's murder.
Holly Mackey is thick as thieves with her three best friends and roommates, the odd crowd, Julia Harte is the smart arse and boss of their outfit, Selena Wynne is the dreamer, an emo beauty, Rebecca O'Mara is headstrong with a strong case of arrested development, Led into battle by Julia, the girls have made enemies of St, Kilda's queen bees, the cool crowd, a group of robots they refer to as the Daleks: Joanne Hefferman, Gemma Harding, Orla Burgess and Alison Muldoon.
On the drive to St, Kilda's, Conway brings Moran up to speed on her interviews, Joanne snitched that prior to his murder, Chris had been going out with Selena, He was found with a condom in his pocket and the likely theory is that he sneaked onto the girls' campus to score with someone.
His head was split nearly in two by someone using a long handled instrument with a sharp blade, Selena and her mates denied she was with Chris and Joanne offered no evidence, No calls or texts were recovered linking Chris to a girlfriend, His mates, if they knew anything, weren't helpful, "Sixteen year old boys," Conway remarks, "you'd get more sense going down to the zoo and interviewing the chimp cage.
"
The detectives receive token assistance from the school's headmistress, Miss Eileen McKenna, whose priority is to protect the reputation St.
Kilda's and keep parents from spending tuition money at another school, Conway amp Moran determine that eight students had access to the art room and could've placed the note on the Secret Place: Julia, Selena, Holly amp Becca or Joanne, Gemma, Orla amp Alison.
Having botched the initial interviews when her then partner insisted they be held in McKenna's office, Conway picks the art room and agrees to let Moran do the talking, casting him as Good Cop, with Conway's Bad Cop poised to take over if she thinks he's making a bollix of her case.
In the wake of Chris' murder, Holly warns her mates what to expect under questioning, "This isn't going to be like Houlihan going, 'Ooh dear, I smell tobacco, have you girls been smoking cigarettes' and if you look innocent enough she believes you.
These are detectives, If they get one clue that you know anything about anything, they're like pit bulls, Like, eight hours in an interview room with them interrogating you and your parents going apeshit, does that sound like fun That's what'll happen if you even pause before you answer a question.
"
One of the reasons to keep returning to Tana French are her interrogation scenes, which are in a league of their own.
I hope I'm never interrogated or have to interrogate anyone, but am fascinated by the
similarities between a gifted interrogator and a performing artist they both dress a set, put on a costume and play a character, varied from play to play, with the artistic license to say anything if it might compel someone to offer up information.
French knows that. Her dialogue is razor sharp and she has the confidence to let these scenes play out without rushing forward from one plot point to the next.
The Secret Place crosses the Murder Squad up with their fiercest adversaries yet: eight teenage girls, "Maybe she didn't lie to me," Conway tells Moran, "But girls that age, they're liars, All of them. " In many ways, this novel is one intense interrogation, staged on the campus of St, Kilda's over a twelve hour period as the truth of the girls' relationships with each other and with Chris Harper is revealed, Another thing French does artfully well in this novel is explore the nature of a developing partnership, as two detectives, a woman and a man, are pitched together and over the course of the day, learn each others games and determine whether or not they can trust each other.
Still giving orders, but her tone had changed, I'd passed the test, or we had: the click was there, Your dream partner grows in the back of your mind, secret, like your dream girl, Mine grew up with violin lessons, floortohighceiling books, red setters, a confidence he took for granted and a dry sense of humor no one but me would get.
Mine was everything that wasn't Conway, and I would've bet hers was everything that wasn't me, But the click was there, Maybe, just for a few days, we could be good enough for each other,
What stops this novel from total satisfaction is French's decision to use Moran as a first person narrator of the even numbered chapters and to switch to a third person narrator for odd numbered chapters, which foreshadow the murder.
This is something new for French and not only is it a major departure, it's blue balls, Chapter after chapter conclude in anticlimax, with French pulling the reader away from the investigation to hang out with her suspects, like mixing Law amp Order: Special Victims Unit with Law amp Order: Criminal Intent.
French is a skilled enough to gradually invest me in her suspects even with"OhmyGod" or "Whatever" being fired like tennis balls, but at the moment of climax, she returns to the cops.
What French does excel at once more is crafting an intoxicating murder mystery that's more than the sum of weapons or suspects or motives the story resonated with me emotionally.
French returns to a theme she first explored with In the Woods: the elusive nature of friendships, She remembers teenagers and she knows adults, And she's aware not to fix what ain't broke, bringing back the character of to threaten the detectives the move is similar to introducing a tiger into a gladiatorial pit fight and poses a physical threat to Conway amp Moran that teenage girls don't quite muster.
Like much of French's work, it's a thrill, but one that doesn't wear off after the murderer is revealed and the plot is over.
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