The Trespasser

 

The Trespasser by Tana French
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

French goes back to form with this installment of the Squad series. Interestingly, she filp flops the viewpoint of the same team that investigated The Secret Place. Now we get to understand why Detective Conway comes across so brassy and how Detective Moran is viewed by her and others. The murder investigation is okay but the exploration of how the stories we tell (to others and ourselves) and the stories we believe shape everything we perceive. (Need a new perception? Tell a new story). In fact that theme might have overshadowed the mystery itself, but its a good idea to think about. Not the best of the bunch, but a solid contribution to the collection.

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The Secret Place

 

The Secret Place by Tana French
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

French deviated quite a bit in this entry to the Dublin Murder Squad and while it was a fine detective novel, I felt frustrated that it didn't play by the rules. First of all we go back to two novels to Frank's world instead of the immediately preceding book. If we're going to jump back that far, might as well go back to Rob and Cassie, since they are who we all like anyway. Next, instead of staying inside our protagonist's head we alternate chapters with an omniscient narrator that covers a group of roommates/best friends. The chapters also alternate between present time and when the murder happened a year ago. It makes for an interesting read, but it varies vastly from the other installments. And then finally, the magic that has hovered in and through the other novels from a vague sort of beast in the first book and shows up as watchful shadows and invisible beasts in other installments but which plays a nebulous existence in the narrator's (or victim's) heads, shows up full-fledged in this one, unambiguous and disconcertingly real. Which, again, is ok, but doesn't play by the rules French laid down in her earlier novels. Such deviations were distracting, but the story, another focusing on the power of the magic of youthful friendships and the threat of its destruction by growing up and changing having a devastating result, does stay on French's overarching theme and is told in a relatable and heartbreaking way.

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Their faces on the way home afterwards look older and strained, smeared with the scraps of leftover expressions that were pressed on too hard and won't lift away.

Broken Harbor

Broken Harbor by Tana French
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

For me this was the most harrowing of the Dublin Murder Squad series. The small details that kept building sucked me in. I was like why is she including so much of these minor details, and then as I was trying to figure it out I was suddenly horrified and completely embroiled in the mystery. Which maybe helped me to believe such a convoluted murder resolution. The total feeling of isolation both in proximity to others and the emotional isolation that occurs with shame and grief was palpable. The affect of mental illness on family members was also well explored as well as the warning that we all need a community to help deal with catastrophe to protect our own well being. Definitely one of the more haunting in this series.

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The smell of the sea swept over the wall and in through the empty window-hole, wide and wild with a million intoxicating secrets.  I don't trust that smell.  It hooks us somewhere deeper than reason or civilization, in the fragments of our cells that rocked in oceans before we had minds, and it pulls till we follow mindlessly as rutting animals.  When I was a teenager, that smell used to set me boiling, spark my muscles like electricity, bounce me off the walls of the caravan till my parents sprang me free to obey the call, bounding after whatever tantalizing once-in-a-lifetimes it promised.  Now I know better.  That smell is bad medicine.  It lures us to leap off high cliffs, fling ourselves on towering waves, leave behind everyone we love and face into thousands of miles of open water for the sake of what might be on the far shore. 

Over time, the ghosts of things that happened start to turn distant; once they've cut you a couple of million times, their edges blunt on your scar tissue, they wear thin.  The ones that slice like razors forever are the ghosts of things that never got a chance to happen. 

Little Fires Everywhere

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A good exploration of what it is to be a parent, the legality of it, the biology, the real life ramifications. Mix these issues with prejudice--racial, sexual, class. But Ng does this well in the real moments of life--principles we say we believe in may change when confronted with exceptions for our friends, our children. There is also the question of what makes a good parent--which is more important, the temporal or emotional needs? No one escapes from this story without some blame and/or realization that they do not live their own beliefs all of the time. By allowing the focus to follow so many characters we can understand the justifications, the realities and the decisions, even if the other ignorant parties don't and we also realize there are no easy answers. Ng helps us to realize we have our own exceptions and prejudices. Do I completely understand the final scenes? No, because of all the characters, Izzy may be the least explored. But overall I thought the issues and questions raised were thought-provoking and proved there are no easy answers when it comes to the who and hows of parenting.

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Faithful Place

Faithful Place by Tana French
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Frank Mackey who was introduced in The Likeness as Cassie's undercover handler is now the protagonist and he is drawn into a mystery a little closer to home. Literally. He hasn't been to his childhood home since he left at 19 and it soon becomes apparent why. There is very little to find likeable in this clan of overly-emotional, alcohol-driven, violent, and angry characters. Frank is only slightly better and a little unbearable simply because he thinks he is better than them. The mystery spools out slowly and satisfyingly (if sadly) and Frank actually grows a bit. Once again, I am amazed at French's ability to allow the voice of the protagonist to be unique from her other characters--she completely inhabits a character, even if they aren't the most palatable. The exploration of class and community in the Irish culture is also explored. Dialogue was beautifully done.

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The Dry

 

The Dry by Jane Harper
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Aaron Falk returns to his childhood home when his old friend seemingly commits suicide after killing his family. Aaron is a financial detective but even he can see that there is more to the story after he starts looking into it. There are old mysteries to unravel and old relationships to navigate and the landscape plays a part as not only setting but perhaps part of the motivation, an accomplice in more than one way. The plot flashes back and forth from stories from his youth, to the unfolding drama but perhaps because I was also reading Tana French, I found the psychological inner workings shallow and so I wanted more understanding of the motivations of many of the characters.

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The Likeness

 

The Likeness by Tana French
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is one of the more unlikely set ups: the murder victim is a dead ringer for a detective who used to be undercover. So she is persuaded to go undercover and resume the victim's life to suss out the guilty party. The detective in question is Cassie, the partner of Rob Ryan from the first book (Ryan doesn't make a personal appearance). Like the first book of this series, what goes on in the protagonist's mind is at least as interesting as the mystery. What was refreshing was that Cassie had her own voice (as opposed to a female version of Ryan). Instead of being thoroughly detailed like Ryan, Cassie is a woman of action. She doesn't stew in introspection, but acts with plenty of justification but not too much stewing. She's desperate to prove herself and to regain a sense of self after the last case but becoming someone else makes her question where she begins and the character of Lexie ends. Once again French focuses on the special relationships that can develop in your youth--and its ultimate demise.

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