The Trespasser and The Secret Place

The Trespasser

by Tana French

★★★★☆

No one does a slow burn mystery like Tana French. I love her Dublin murder squad series so much and each time a new book comes out I am beyond excited. She doesn't just write mysteries, she writes beautiful literary fiction that happens to include a mystery. Each of the books in the series is connected but works as a standalone. 

The Trespasser gives us a glimpse into the life of Antoinette Conway, who we met in The Secret Place (book 5). She and her partner, Stephen Moran, are assigned to a murder case at the end of a long shift. They find Aislinn, a lovely young woman, murdered in her home. Rory, a boyfriend, is an obvious suspect, but they have a few other theories to follow. Throughout the investigation Conway has to fight against the prejudice of her own coworkers and her own doubts about herself.

I tried to go slow and savor the story, but I loved every second of it. The atmosphere she creates is palpable and the anxious feeling builds as we get closer to the truth. She writes the best scenes I’ve ever read of detectives interviewing their suspects.

BOTTOM LINE: I’ve yet to be disappointed by French’s work. I liked this one ever more than her last. She gets inside the mind of her characters so completely that it’s easy to forget that she switches her main character in every book!

“No one needs a relationship. What you need is the basic cop-on to figure that out, in the face of all the media bullshit screaming that you're nothing on your own and you're a dangerous freak if you disagree. The truth is, if you don't exist without someone else, you don't exist at all. And that doesn't just go for romance. I love my ma, I love my friends, I love the bones of them. If any of them wanted me to donate a kidney or crack a few heads, I'd do it, no questions asked. And if they all waved goodbye and walked out of my life tomorrow, I'd still be the same person I am today."

The Secret Place

by Tana French

★★★★

The fifth book in the Dublin Murder Squad series focuses on Stephen, who we met in Faithful Place. He's desperate to join the squad. When Holly, the young girl in Faithful Place, now seven years older, gives him a tip about a murder committed in a local prep school, he sees his chance to work with the murder squad. Holly and her three best friends, Julia, Selena, and Rebecca, all become suspects. This novel flashes back and forth between Stephen and Antoinette Conway's investigation in the present and girls' point-of-view during the months leading up to the murder.

BOTTOM LINE: This one felt different from the other books because of its focus on teenage girls and their intense emotions. It wasn't my favorite in the series, but I just love French's writing. She creates tense and enthralling novels each time, even though the characters and plots are never the same.

“That long sigh again, above us. This time I saw it, moving through the branches. Like the trees were listening; like they would've been sad about us, sad for us, only they'd heard it all so many thousand times before.”

“It does that to you, being a detective. You look at blank space and see gears turning, motives and cunning; nothing looks innocent any more. Most times when you prove away the gears, the blank space looks lovely, peaceful. But that arm: innocent, it looked just as dangerous.” 

BOOKS 1-4

In the Woods

The Likeness

Faithful Place

Broken Harbor

R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril IX

Each fall Carl at Stainless Steel Droppings hosts the R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril Challenge (R.I.P.) I always save up fun mysteries, detective stories or thrillers for September and October to participate. This year I completed the Peril the First challenge, four books. Here's my reviews... 

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty 

BrokenHarbor by Tana French

The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith

Marina by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Previous R.I.P. Challenges:
R.I.P. Challenge VIII
R.I.P. Challenge VII
R.I.P. Challenge VI
 

Broken Harbor

Broken Harbor

by Tana French
★★★★

The best way I can describe Tana French's novels is that they get under your skin. The worlds she creates seem to give me tunnel vision, the farther I get into the book the more I'm wrapped up in the detectives' lives and their struggle to find the answers to their case.

This is the fourth books in the Dublin Murder Squad series, and features Detective Kennedy, a straight arrow. He's put on a dark case, a home attack that left a father and two kids dead and the mother in critical condition. The plot explores the cracks in our lives that aren't always easily visible to those around us. Kennedy's personal history and his troubled sister cause complications in the case as he tries to teach a new rookie the ropes.

I didn't love Kennedy as a character, but we aren't supposed to. He is rigid, seeing the world in black-and-white, but it's because he needs boundaries and fears what happens to those who spend too close to the edge.

This book follows the case of a murdered family, their history is slowly reveal as the detectives uncover pieces of their lives. One interesting thing about French is that she never feels the need to tie everything up with a nice pretty bow in the end. The murder mystery is always resolved, but issues in the detectives lives, other elements of the case, etc. are often left for the reader to determine.

BOTTOM LINE: Each of the books in the series works completely as a standalone. The Likeness remains my favorite, but every single one of them has deepened my appreciation for the author and heightened my anticipation for her next book. This one was no exception.

I save French's books to enjoy on vacation or times when I know I'll be able to dive into the novel. That's because she's one of my treasured favorite new authors to read and I ration her work. If you love a good mystery, with excellent writing, moody Irish settings and wonderful character doubt, you just have to check her out.

*Read as part of the R.I.P. Challenge hosted by Stainless Steel Droppings.

The Husband’s Secret

The Husband’s Secret

by Liane Moriarty

★★★★★

If Tana French and Maeve Binchy had a baby, this would be it. This beautiful, complicated novel is set in Australia and weaves together three separate plots. The first introduces us to Cecelia, an organized mother of three girls (Polly, Esther and Isabel) who finds an old unopened letter from her husband John-Paul.

The second introduces us to another married couple, Tess and Will. Will has fallen in love with Felicity, who is Tess’ best friend, cousin, and business partner. Tess, left reeling from the shock, flees to her mother’s house in Sydney with her son Liam. Finally, we meet Rachel, grandmother to Jacob. She is frustrated when her son Rob and his career-driven wife Lauren decided to move to New York. Rachel has experienced some extreme tragedies in her life that have left her bitter and resentful.  

I loved that for each of the women we are able to see them through the eyes of other people in addition to hearing them describe themselves. It gives a more complete view than we as the reader are usually able to get. We often either hear what a character thinks of themselves or we see a characters described by others, not both. I loved that combination. It made me think about how I view myself vs. how others see me. We are harsher on ourselves and at the same time we can be cruel to others with our quick first impressions.

The three stories, which on the surface seem so different, are connected by unexpected threads. From the Berlin Wall to the Biggest Loser, the author uses random elements to connect the lives of the women. The whole structure reminded me so much of Maeve Binchy’s style of writing. There’s also a darker side to the story and shades of Tana French’s skilled mysteries kept popping up.  

Another wonderful element is the depth of the secondary characters, especially Felicity and Connor. Both could easily have been one-note creations, easily dismissible. Instead we see their layers, we empathize with them. Their complications make the entire story richer. As much as we sometimes wish it to be true, people are not simply good or evil. Moriarty’s novel embraces that fact and delves deep into the complicated stew of life.

BOTTOM LINE: Such a wonderful novel, I couldn't put it down. It was a equal balance between great characters, excellent pacing and an incredible plot. This one hit the nail ont the head for me.

“It was like being buried in an avalanche of detail. The myriad of tiny logistical maneuvers that made up someone else’s life. It wasn’t that it was dull. Although it was a little dull. It was mainly the sheer quantity of words that flowed so effortlessly from Cecilia’s mouth.”

“Did one act define who you were forever?”

Faithful Place

Faithful Place

by Tana French

★★★★☆

Frank has worked in Undercover in the Dublin police department for years. It’s been more than 20 years since he left his suffocating home in Faithful Place and he’s never looked back. Now, decades after leaving in the middle of the night, he must return home to find out what happened to his childhood sweetheart, Rosie. She was supposed to leave with him that fateful night, but she never showed up.

Frank’s family is the definition of dysfunctional. His overbearing mother, alcoholic father and hostile older brother make for an uncomfortable family reunion. He’s a bit closer to his other siblings, but has only kept in touch with one of them. The story flashes back and forth between the current case and Frank’s life 20 years earlier. Those were my favorite parts of the book; you fall in love with Rosie through Frank’s memories. As he returns to his old neighborhood we can see how broken he truly is. He’s become a shell of a man, driven by his work and not much else.  

BOTTOM LINE: As I’ve found with French’s other books (In the Woods and The Likeness), her writing transcends the plot. This isn’t my favorite in the series but that still sets it far above most books. She paints such vivid pictures of troubled people that you can’t look away until the very last page.

"They might be a spectacularly messed-up bunch and what they felt about me was anyone's guess, but the four of them had dropped whatever they could be doing this evening, put down their lives at a moment's notice and coming here to walk me through this night. We fit together like pieces of a jigsaw, and that felt like a warm gold glow wrapped all around me; like I had stumbled, by some perfect accident, into the right place."

"He held us up to see the lightning flickering above the chimney pots and told us not to be scared of the thunder, because it was just the lightning heating up air as fast as an explosion, and not to be scared of Ma, he was leaning out the window getting shriller by the second. When a sheet of rain finally swept over us he threw his head back to the purple-gray sky and whirl that's round and round in the empty street, Shay and me screaming with laughter like wild things, huge warm drops of rain splattering our faces and electricity crackling in our hair, thunder shaking the ground and rumbling up through Da's bones into ours."

I read this for the R.I.P. Challenge hosted by Stainless Steel Droppings.

Top Ten Books On My Fall 2013 TBR List

This week's Top Ten from The Broke and the Bookish asks for the Top Ten Books on My Fall 2013 TBR List.

1) Among Schoolchildren by Tracy Kidder: It’s on my TBR Challenge list and my book club is reading it this year.

2) The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky: This beast is the last book I need to read for the Back to the Classics Challenge.

3) Dune by Frank Herbert: I’m really looking forward to finally reading this one. It’s been on my list too long.

4) The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith: Caved to the hype. I love the Harry Potter books and I’m a fan of the occasionally crime noir.

5) Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya: I try to read at least one banned book each year and this is my selection for 2013.

6) If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino: Care and I are planning a laid back readalong on this one this fall.

7) The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare: I’m a bit behind on my Let’s Read Plays challenge.  

8) The Night Watch by Sarah Waters: All three of these final ones are books I’ve had my eye on for the annual R.I.P. Challenge. I love a good spooky story or mystery in the fall!

9) The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

10) Faithful Place by Tana French

Image from here. 

Top Ten Beach Reads

This week's Top Ten from The Broke and the Bookish asks for our Top Ten Beach Reads (however YOU define a beach read!) For me a beach read isn’t necessarily fluff, but it is a book that hooks you and keeps you entertained while still providing good characters.

1) The Harry Potter series! I love re-reading these on vacation.

2) The Count of Monte Cristo: Couldn't. Put. It. Down.

3) Paper Towns: Road trips, Florida, it's perfect.

4) The Pillars of the Earth: A big fat epic novel that you can sink in

and enjoy.

5) The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society: Sweet story and the epistolary style makes it an easy read.

6) Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad series: You can't help but get caught up in these.

7) The Shadow of the Wind: The perfect mystery novel.

8) Maeve Binchy novels (Tara Road, Circle of Friends): Great characters, great stories.

Categories I don't read on vacation:

9) Nonfiction: I love this genre most of the time, but while traveling I usually avoid it.

10) Shakespeare: I read a few of his plays each year, but definitely not on vacation.

Image from here.

Top Ten Authors That I'd Put On My Auto-Buy List

This week's Top Ten from The Broke and the Bookish asks for the Top Ten Authors That I'd Put On My Auto-Buy List. These are authors that you love so much you as no questions about their latest book, you just add it to your wishlist. I have lots of classic authors that would fall into this category, but I’m only going to list authors that are still writing books.

1) Maeve Binchy (she passed away this year, but she still has one unreleased book)

2) Jhumpa Lahiri

3) Carlos Ruiz Zafon

4) Jasper Fforde

5) Kate Morton

6) Nick Hornby

7) John Green

8) Tana French

9) Markus Zusak

10) Neil Gaiman

Image form here. 

The Likeness and The Secret History

Reading these two back-to-back was an odd experience. I had no idea they would be so similar but because of that I couldn’t help comparing them. Between the two I definitely preferred The Likeness, but they each had their unique strengths while essentially telling the same story. Both focus on a close-knit group of college students that must cope after a tragedy happens in their midst.

The Likeness

by Tana French

★★★★★

What a ride! As others have noted, you need to suspend your disbelief at the onset to accept the premise. Detective Cassie Maddox is called to a murder scene where the dead body of a woman virtually identical to herself has been discovered. What follows is an intense preparation and training for Maddox to go undercover as the murdered girl to try and discover who committed the crime. 

To complicate things, Maddox discovers that the woman has been using her old undercover alias, Lexie Madison. She was a college student living with four other students in an old house. The others have an odd symbiotic relationship and Cassie, pretending to be Lexie, must convince them that she’s the girl they know and love. 

The reason this book works so well, despite the far-fetched plot, is the characters. They are beautifully drawn and just enchanting. The world that French creates is an intoxicating one. Just like Cassie, I couldn’t help but get caught up in their strange situation. There’s no way Cassie would have become so enthralled by that odd “family” if she hadn’t had her spirit completely broken by her partner Rob in the series’ first book In the Woods. I missed Rob and Cassie’s easy camaraderie in this book, but I was glad she mentioned him so many times. He was such a huge part of her life and in a way this book is her way of grieving the loss of their friendship before she can truly move on with her life. 

BOTTOM LINE: A beautiful mystery that shouldn’t be missed. Read In the Woods first to understand the characters better, but know that this book is even better than that one! 

“I just believe that vices should be enjoyed; otherwise what’s the point in having them?” 

“I hate nostalgia, it’s laziness with prettier accessories.” 

“I had forgotten even how to want something slow, something soft, something with wide spaces and its own sure-footed swaying rhythms.” 

“I wanted to drink and dance until a fuse blew in my brain and there was nothing left in the world except the music and the blaze of lights and the four of them surrounding me, laughing, dazzling, untouchable.”

The Secret History

by Donna Tartt

★★★★

This strange dark story starts with a murder and the rest of the book is a tense look at the aftermath. A group of students at a small New England college grow incredibly close when they enroll in a Greek study program under the direction of the illusive professor, Julian Morrow. Our narrator, Richard, is the last to join the tight-knit group and he has a hard time fitting in with the wealthy crew. The circle includes a set of twins, Charles and Camilla, the effusive Bunny, domineering Henry, and Francis. 

After the initial shock of the murder on the opening pages, the story behind it slowly unfolds, revealing a torrid tragedy of Greek proportions. Richard is the eternal observer, rarely initiating action, only reacting. It’s through his passive eyes that we see the events, which gives the whole book a detached feel. You can’t put it down, but you never feel connected, it’s an odd balance. 

The most fascinating part of the book for me was the eroding nature of guilt and the different effect it had on each person. The way we react to things says so much about our true natures. In that way it reminded me a lot of Crime and Punishment. 

BOTTOM LINE: An interesting read, one that will certainly stick with me. Honestly, I think that if I hadn’t read The Likeness directly after this one I probably would have liked it more. The two books are so similar in their basic premise, but The Likeness was the more engaging and enthralling of the two for me and this one suffered in comparison. I did like this one; I just loved The Likeness more. 

"But of course I didn't see this crucial moment for what it was; I suppose we never do." 

"There is nothing wrong with the love of Beauty. But Beauty - unless she is wed to something more meaningful - is always superficial"

"... instead of merely loitering in the bullet's path like a bystander which I so essentially am."

In the Woods

In the Woods
by Tana French
★★★★

When a murdered girl is found in a small Ireland community two Dublin detectives are assigned to the case. Rob Ryan and Cassie have a unique relationship, similar to siblings’ playful, antagonistic style. It feels very realistic and the dynamic works well. The pair play off the others’ strengths and weaknesses, creating a wonderful balance of trust and support.

The whole story is told from Rob Ryan’s point of view and from the beginning he tells us that as a detective he does two things: he lies and at the same he desperately seeks the truth. Those two things, which at first seem contradictory, make up much the novel’s suspense. How much can his narration be trusted? Early on we learn that Ryan went through an incredibly traumatic event in his childhood and the ripples of it still affect his life. This new murder case brings many of those old hurts to the surface and throws his life into turmoil.

The novel really explores the delicate balance in relationships; those between children and their parents, friends, co-workers, etc. Exploring the breakdown of those bonds is fascinating. The whole book moves quickly and I couldn’t wait to find out what happened next. I will say that some of the content is dark and so if you're sensitive to that you should be aware of it in advance.
 
**SPOILERS**

I know the ending, which leaves the old case unsolved is realistic, but I still was hoping to know what happened. Even though I’d heard something along these lines about the book I was still really surprised when I realized we would never know. I was also surprised to find out that the second book in the series is not from the same person’s point of view so the odds of ever having a resolution to that case is unlikely.
 
**SPOILERS OVER**

Here’s the thing, the book is a mystery but it’s so well-written and engrossing that the who-dun-it part is not the most interesting element. I actually had a pretty good idea who was behind it (definitely not the details though), but that didn’t take anything away from the enjoyment of watching it unfold.
 
BOTTOM LINE: A really good psychological mystery; the characters’ relationships take precedence over the mystery itself. Don’t expect everything to be tied up with a neat bow. If that bothers you then you might want to skip this one. My unanswered questions actually made me lower my rating for this one just a little bit, but I’ll definitely be reading the next book in the series.

I read this for the R.I.P. Challenge

R.I.P. Challenge and The Mysterious Affair at Styles

 

I participated in Carl's R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril, (R.I.P.) Challenge for the first time last year and I loved it! Here's more about it in his own words...

The purpose of R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril VII is to enjoy books and movies/television that could be classified (by you) as: Mystery, Suspense, Thriller, Dark Fantasy, Gothic, Horror, Supernatural, etc.

I am absolutely joining in the fun again this year, I'm just a bit late to the game because of our recent road trip. I'm joining at the Peril the First level, meaning I'll read four books that qualify. The challenge runs until Oct. 31st.

I'm planning on reading the following books:  
- The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie (completed this week and reviewed below)
- In the Woods by Tana French
- The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (a re-read as part of the RIP Group Read) 

- Affinity by Sarah Waters

I might add The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins and The Final Problem by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to that list if I have time. I hope you'll join in if you feel like it!

Images and more info can be found here.

The Mysterious Affair at Styles
by Agatha Christie
★★★★

When I started this one I didn’t realize it was Christie’s first published novel and it introduced the world to Hercule Poirot, the now infamous detective. After reading it I can easily understand why Christie became such a hugely successful author.

A murder takes place in an old English manor and suspicion falls on all of the family members of the deceased who live there. The book even provides a “Clue style” map of the home showing its layout and all entrances and exits. There are a few red herrings and fun twists, all-in-all it’s a satisfying mystery.

The story is told through the point-of-view of Lieutenant Hastings. He is the Watson to Poirot’s Sherlock. Their relationship is a constant source of entertainment throughout the novel. Hastings is a typically Englishman, all manners and cups of tea, while Poirot is at times exuberant or flustered, but always carefully calculating and processing all he sees. I thought it was hilarious that Hastings’ kept thinking Poirot was getting a little old and loosing his touch when really Hastings just hadn’t caught up with his thought process yet.

BOTTOM LINE: A classic Christie mystery, not my all-time favorite, but a fun introduction to her large body of work.

“If the fact will not fit the theory, let the theory go.”

p.s. I couldn’t help but think of the Doctor Who episode with Agatha Christie from season 4 while I was reading this one. I love Doctor Who.