Review: The Secret Place

The Secret Place

Tana French

Pub. 2014

Tana French's Dublin murder squad books have been some of my favorite contemporary mysteries since I discovered them a year or two back. The Secret Place is the fifth in the series, but please don't let that deter you. Though there is commonality between characters in the series, the protagonist changes with each novel, so you can start anywhere. That being said, I would suggest you begin with In The Woods, it absolutely blew me away.

Stephen Moran is stuck in the cold cases unit, though his heart lies with the murder squad. When Holly, the daughter of a colleague, approaches him with evidence regarding a murder that occurred at her boarding school a while back, Moran sees his opportunity to get an in with murder. Instead of turning the evidence over, he convinces the detective who worked on the case originally, Annette Conway, that he will be invaluable to the investigation. After all, he already has in an in with the students in Holly. Conway is a woman in a squad of men who don't seem to want her there; she needs a big solve to stay afloat professionally, so she agrees to let him tag along. Moran and Conway have narrowed down their investigation to two tight knit groups of friends, Holly, Serena, Becca and Julia, and their rivals, the Daleks. One of them knows who killed Chris Harper, a student at the brother school to St. Kilda's, the boarding school the girls attend, and Moran and Conway have limited time to determine who is in the know.

The girls are in the throes of adolescence, still defining themselves by their friends and social status, too young to recognize their cruelty and their dependence on one another. Though French doesn't quite succeed in making the Daleks real, her portrayal of Holly and her friends brings them off the page, where they become almost too real. The book is narrated alternately by Holly, Serena, Becca and Julia in the past and Moran in the present. As a result, little pieces of the mystery are being collected both from the investigation and from the girls' experiences leading up to Harper's murder, creating a beauty of a puzzle. French takes you into the heads of all the girls during their individual questioning, and they suddenly become three-dimensional. In fact, her ability to take you inside the heads of all of her characters is what makes The Secret Place so good. The interrogations will leave you understanding each girl, but also will make you want to be interviewed by Moran, to know what he would think of you. The personal and professional motives of both Moran and Conway keep you invested in the investigation's outcome, and in their futures in general.

I can't say that The Secret Place is my favorite of the series, but it is absolutely worth a read. All of French's backlist is, in my opinion. For those who steer away from mysteries, please, please give these a chance. French writes beautifully, and her books carry unusual depth.