Binge Reading and Listening to Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad Cases
I binge read, or should I say binge listened to five books over two weeks recently.
A few months ago, I read In the Woods by Irish writer Tana French. This was French's debut novel about the murder of a young girl outside Dublin, and the detective, Rob Ryan, who attempts to solve the case while battling his own demons and past. While I felt that there was something not quite satisfying or believable about the book, I was hooked enough by the setting and story that I thought I'd read Tana French's other novels.
Since In the Woods, French has written four other novels featuring personalities in the Dublin Murder Squad. Book two, The Likeness, a book I listened to using the Audible App, is about undercover detective Cassie Maddox who impersonates a recently murdered graduate student at Dublin's Trinity college to try to find her murderer. She looks so much like the dead student that when she poses as the student to live with her housemates those idiots were dense enough to have no idea that their friend is actually a different person entirely. Implausible as the plot may be, I was hooked by Maddox's lust for living on the edge as a detective. French's description of Maddox's immersion into her doppleganger's life and the vivid portrayals of each of her roommates was extremely skillful, and kept me at the edge of my seat to the bitter end.
The next book I listened to on Audible was Faithful Place. It features charismatic undercover detective Frank Mackey, who also happened to be Cassie Maddox's handler in The Likeness. Mackey's role here is not one of an undercover detective but of a private citizen trying to find out why his disappeared first love's suitcase surfaces now, and whether a crime was committed at all. While investigating the disappearance, Maddox came to realize that his family's sordid history and presence in the poor neighborhood of Faithful Place played a role in everything that happened in the neighborhood, and he had to come to terms with the fact that his painful youth contributed to his marital failure. In addition to this emotional journey into the past, Mackey must be a father to a daughter who, while being introduced to his family, becomes an unwitting witness to a murder case. This book in the Dublin Murder Squad series is one of the best mysteries I have read.
I read book four, Broken Harbor, as a hardback I borrowed from the LA Public Library. Broken Harbor begins with a triple murder of a father his two young children, and the severe stabbing of the lone surviving mother of the family. Mitch Kennedy, one of the best detectives on the Dublin Murder Squad was assigned to the case along with his rookie partner. As he investigates the case, he has to manage a crazy sister who needs him, and the memory of a mentally ill mother who committed suicide many years ago. As the case leads to the impossibly sad end, Kennedy must deal with his rookie partner who almost sinks the case when trying to avoid the horrific conclusion they must draw, and come to terms with his ethical responsibilities as a cop. The twists and turns of this story about love, friendship, family, financial ruin and mental illness were handled so masterfully that I couldn't wait to read The Secret Place, the fifth book that just came out two weeks ago.
Unfortunately, The Secret Place, falls short of French's previous novels' brilliance. Set over the span of 24 hours in a private girls' school, detective Steven Moran from cold case investigates with his partner, the death of a teenage boy who was found murdered on the grounds of the girls' school over a year ago. The book attempts to narrate the events leading up to the crime from the points of view of the teenage school girls, then cuts back to the current investigation from the point of view of detective Moran. I felt that I was being forced to follow the storyline by listening to the teenage girls' talk in the "OMG" teenage lingo about boys, sex, their friendship pact with each other, etc. The experience was plain annoying. I guess having to describe the uninteresting personalities of 6 to 8 different teenage girls is a tall order. French's truly ambitious attempt to sound teenage authentic, failed to make me care about any one of the characters. Unlike her other books that make readers root for the main characters who were battling their own demons, I lost track of who's who in The Secret Place, could care less about them, and had to repeatedly go back to earlier chapters just to follow the storyline. In my book, this is a fail.
A few months ago, I read In the Woods by Irish writer Tana French. This was French's debut novel about the murder of a young girl outside Dublin, and the detective, Rob Ryan, who attempts to solve the case while battling his own demons and past. While I felt that there was something not quite satisfying or believable about the book, I was hooked enough by the setting and story that I thought I'd read Tana French's other novels.
Since In the Woods, French has written four other novels featuring personalities in the Dublin Murder Squad. Book two, The Likeness, a book I listened to using the Audible App, is about undercover detective Cassie Maddox who impersonates a recently murdered graduate student at Dublin's Trinity college to try to find her murderer. She looks so much like the dead student that when she poses as the student to live with her housemates those idiots were dense enough to have no idea that their friend is actually a different person entirely. Implausible as the plot may be, I was hooked by Maddox's lust for living on the edge as a detective. French's description of Maddox's immersion into her doppleganger's life and the vivid portrayals of each of her roommates was extremely skillful, and kept me at the edge of my seat to the bitter end.
The next book I listened to on Audible was Faithful Place. It features charismatic undercover detective Frank Mackey, who also happened to be Cassie Maddox's handler in The Likeness. Mackey's role here is not one of an undercover detective but of a private citizen trying to find out why his disappeared first love's suitcase surfaces now, and whether a crime was committed at all. While investigating the disappearance, Maddox came to realize that his family's sordid history and presence in the poor neighborhood of Faithful Place played a role in everything that happened in the neighborhood, and he had to come to terms with the fact that his painful youth contributed to his marital failure. In addition to this emotional journey into the past, Mackey must be a father to a daughter who, while being introduced to his family, becomes an unwitting witness to a murder case. This book in the Dublin Murder Squad series is one of the best mysteries I have read.
I read book four, Broken Harbor, as a hardback I borrowed from the LA Public Library. Broken Harbor begins with a triple murder of a father his two young children, and the severe stabbing of the lone surviving mother of the family. Mitch Kennedy, one of the best detectives on the Dublin Murder Squad was assigned to the case along with his rookie partner. As he investigates the case, he has to manage a crazy sister who needs him, and the memory of a mentally ill mother who committed suicide many years ago. As the case leads to the impossibly sad end, Kennedy must deal with his rookie partner who almost sinks the case when trying to avoid the horrific conclusion they must draw, and come to terms with his ethical responsibilities as a cop. The twists and turns of this story about love, friendship, family, financial ruin and mental illness were handled so masterfully that I couldn't wait to read The Secret Place, the fifth book that just came out two weeks ago.
Unfortunately, The Secret Place, falls short of French's previous novels' brilliance. Set over the span of 24 hours in a private girls' school, detective Steven Moran from cold case investigates with his partner, the death of a teenage boy who was found murdered on the grounds of the girls' school over a year ago. The book attempts to narrate the events leading up to the crime from the points of view of the teenage school girls, then cuts back to the current investigation from the point of view of detective Moran. I felt that I was being forced to follow the storyline by listening to the teenage girls' talk in the "OMG" teenage lingo about boys, sex, their friendship pact with each other, etc. The experience was plain annoying. I guess having to describe the uninteresting personalities of 6 to 8 different teenage girls is a tall order. French's truly ambitious attempt to sound teenage authentic, failed to make me care about any one of the characters. Unlike her other books that make readers root for the main characters who were battling their own demons, I lost track of who's who in The Secret Place, could care less about them, and had to repeatedly go back to earlier chapters just to follow the storyline. In my book, this is a fail.
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