TANA FRENCH TANA FRENCH. TANA. FRENCH. TANA FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENCH.
I. Love. Tana French. She. Is. The Best. The reason that this was on my bingo card as “Not My Wheelhouse” because I pondered and was surprised to discover that murder mysteries are no longer my wheelhouse, it is just not a genre I really turn to anymore, and um, that’s got to change, because never am I more engrossed then when watching a murder mystery unfold and then unravel.
In doing some reading about French I saw things like “cult following” and “diehard fans” and um, see previous opening. Anyone who asks for a book recommendation from me gets the follow-up questions, “How do you feel about murder mysteries? Have you heard of Tana French?” More often than not, the answer is no. I think though best selling she fell under the radar under the shadow of behemoth “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” which came out around the same time as her debut novel. So, in summation, TANA FRENCH IS GREAT. READ HER BOOKS.
This book is the fifth in her Dublin Murder Squad series, though it isn’t a sequel exactly. Rather than follow the same detectives each go round, in every subsequent novel French takes a minor character in a previous book and them makes them the protagonist, thus she is creating a vibrant world and weaving a web of connectivity as she goes, and her stories and characters are always fresh. This one is no different with it’s overlapping characters and in my opinion this book is just as good as all the rest, with detectives returning to a boarding school with new information regarding a year old cold case, a murder of a teenage boy.
The novel goes back and forth between the present, with the detectives following a possible lead, and one year ago, showing events leading up to the murder. Each of those chapters starts similarly, with a little exposition and then “so and so has 8 weeks, two days, and 12 hours to live.” It’s jarring to see the murdered character and try to figure out where the story is going to go, while at the same time the detectives try to backtrack. This is a story about teenage friendship, heartache, and the bonds that bind us. It’s great, French is great, READ THIS BOOK.
