The Secret Place: A Novel (Dublin Murder Squad, #5)

by Tana French

“An absolutely mesmerizing read. . . . Tana French is simply this: a truly great writer.” —Gillian Flynn

Read the New York Times bestseller by Tana French, author of the forthcoming novel The Hunter and “the most important crime novelist to emerge in the past 10 years” (The Washington Post).

A year ago a boy was found murdered at a girlsʼ boarding school, and the case was never solved. Detective Stephen Moran has been waiting for his chance to join Dublin’s Murder Squad when sixteen-year-old Holly Mackey arrives in his office with a photo of the boy with the caption: “I KNOW WHO KILLED HIM.” Stephen joins with Detective Antoinette Conway to reopen the case—beneath the watchful eye of Holly’s father, fellow detective Frank Mackey. With the clues leading back to Holly’s close-knit group of friends, to their rival clique, and to the tangle of relationships that bound them all to the murdered boy, the private underworld of teenage girls turns out to be more mysterious and more dangerous than the detectives imagined.

• ISBN10: 0143127519
• ISBN13: 9780143127512
• Publish Date: 4 August 2015 (first published 28 August 2014)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc
• Imprint: Penguin USA
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 464
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780143127512

Reviews

[Liz (Bent Bookworm)]

Full review appears on The Bent Bookworm!

I don’t usually get all the feels when reading a murder mystery. For me mysteries are generally all about the who/what/where/when/why and how the detective figure puts all that together into a solution. But Tana French’s 5th Dublin Murder Squad book, [b:The Secret Place|20821043|The Secret Place (Dublin Murder Squad, #5)|Tana French|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1396671263s/20821043.jpg|21598636], gave me the feels.

Somehow, she manages to intrigue me in every single book, even though the POV character changes each time. Unlike most mystery series (at least in my experience), while there are familiar characters in each one, usually we just see a very brief appearance of the people from the last book in the current one. After there first book, the subsequent book’s main character has also been seen briefly in the previous one. I love this foreshadowing, even if I was completely and totally distraught when I started the second book and realized we weren’t going to see Rob again. Still not over it. Still begging to know what happens to him. Ms. French, are you listening?

I love beautiful; always have. I never saw why I should hate what I wish I had. Love it harder. Work your way closer. Clasp your hands around it tighter. Till you find a way to make it yours.

The Secret Place delves into the world of priviledged upper class high school girls, a very slender sliver of the population and as full of vitriol and poison as Henry VIII’s court ever was. I was skeptical going in…how accurate could it be? I was really afraid that it might end up one of those books that sounds like the author is trying desperately to be young again and only succeeds in dating herself by her generation’s slang. But no. Without compromising her usually sparkling prose in the slightest, Ms. French absorbs us into this cut-a-bitch world. God, I’m so glad I didn’t go to this kind of school. Scary AF. Remember little Holly Mackey, from [b:Faithful Place|7093952|Faithful Place (Dublin Murder Squad, #3)|Tana French|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1291165900s/7093952.jpg|7350661]? Well, she’s back and almost-all-grown-up. Still just as smart and sassy, with a slight tinge of…

Holly’s holding her own in this den of lions, along with a very tight group of her friends. They’re having some growing pains, but they’re mostly of the first-world variety. Despite that, they’re actually quite compelling. Much more than I was expecting. I hope Holly appears again. Maybe she’ll eventually join the murder squad herself? Oooo. Now there’s a thought. But I’m getting sidetracked.

My body my mind the way I dress the way I walk…mine all mine.

This book was a lot about the politics and emotions of being a teenager. Yes, teenagers have what I would term politics. In what was a bit of a departure from the previous books (for me) – I guessed the murderer somewhere between page 62 and 101. I kept expecting some huge plot twist and I did doubt myself A LOT, but still. Also, Detective Moran was probably the most…unoriginal narrator she’s had yet. That was helped by the alternating viewpoints – yes, Moran was in the 1st person, but that alternated with chapters in 3rd person from the girls’ POV. Moran is likable but just kind of…there. Now Antoinette Conway, the female detective Moran thrown in with for this case? There’s a bitch I’d like to have at my back, and I mean that in the best possible way. I am SO EXCITED that she’s coming back for [b:The Trespasser|28273664|The Trespasser (Dublin Murder Squad, #6)|Tana French|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1469805929s/28273664.jpg|48321130]!

Also, this is the first time French has had anything but the strictly statistically or scientifically provable events/actions in her books. Trying not to spoil here, but I was really nonplussed by a particular set of occurrences that is never fully explained. I guess that really does happen in real life sometimes, but I have a really hard time extending my reality this far. She actually addressed this in a Q&A on GoodReads ( link but DEFINITE SPOILERS here!!), and that made me feel a little better but I still think it should have been clarified better in the book itself.

They can’t tell you what it’s going to be like…in the reek of ragwort and the milk of broken dandelion stems.

Yes, I’m glad I didn’t go to this kind of school. Pretty sure the sensitive, insecure girl I was in high school would have been flayed alive. At the same time, I’m really sad I didn’t have the kind of experiences Holly and her friends have – and the friends. Despite all their issues…these girls will remember each other, always. 20 years down the road, just thinking of the others will bring back not only memories of things seen but things touched, things tasted, heartache and hope.

4/5 stars.I always find mysteries hard to review without giving spoilers. Also I was a BAD BOOK REVIEWER and returned the library book BEFORE COPYING THE QUOTES I WANTED. Ack!!! Hence the short quotes/lack of quotes.

[annieb123]

So beautifully written and such a promising premise, nuanced and complex. It was a fairly colossal disappointment in the execution. I really wanted to LOVE this book and on finishing it I am only annoyed and unsettled.
The magical realism/supernatural aspects annoyed the bejeebers out of me. Totally unnecessary and ruined my suspension of disbelief.

If it weren't so well written, it'd have been a scant 2 stars :(

[empressbrooke]

I was wondering if Tana French could repeat the astounding amazingness of [b:In the Woods|237209|In the Woods (Dublin Murder Squad, #1)|Tana French|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348442606s/237209.jpg|3088141] and [b:The Likeness|1914973|The Likeness (Dublin Murder Squad, #2)|Tana French|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348934952s/1914973.jpg|6504351] again. Her most recent two had been 4-star reads for me, but (in the words of the teen girls at St. Kilda's), um, not quite reaching the same level of OhmyGod?

I had nothing to fear. The Secret Place is just perfect, and I have so many feelings about it, and I'm so damn mad that I finished it already and now I have yet another wait ahead of me for the next Dublin Murder Squad book. The next narrator has to be Conway, right? I want to know what it's like from her point of view.

[Whitney @ First Impressions Reviews]

Fond of:

Not only do we get one returning character, but three. Stephen, Holly and Frank Mackey are older and smarter than they were the last time we met. I loved seeing their development and the stubbornness all three took on. Like In The Woods, where a teen is the focus and inevitable culprit I really liked the daring all eight girls provided, giving a Rhoda Penmark/Bed Seed vibe to it. Also, I enjoyed that parts of The Secret Place were told in flashback, precipitated with "Chris Harper has x month/week/days to live. Through these segments leading up to the murder the reader got a fuller view of the goings on at St. Kilda's.

Not Fond of:

All eight girls were caddy Lindsey Lohans and got a little tired of hearing the word "Awesomesauce". Antoinette Conway, while she exhibits a bad ass I can do anything as good or better then men, she seemed a little incompetent. She spent a year with Chris Harper's murder as an open case, Stephen Moran comes on the scene and solves it in less then 24 hours. Don't get me wrong, I wanted Stephen to succeed, but if I had to listen to "I can't believe I missed that" one more time...

Final Thoughts:

My kindle's battery died with 30 minutes left to read and I annoyingly had to charge it for a hour. By saying this it exposes that I was so engrossed in The Secret Place that I lost all track of time and did not want to be interrupted for anything. The Secret Place is a thrillingly good read that will take your head for a spin.

[Sophia]

I received this book through a Goodreads giveaway and after binge reading it in a day, I have some pretty mixed feelings. I've never read any Tana French before, but I'm probably going to read her other books. Anyway, I'm going to go ahead and spoiler the rest of my review; I can't be trusted not to reveal any details.



Firstly, I guessed the killer within the first 200 pages, go me! Yet a huge part of me wishes I hadn't, I wished she'd gone a different way with the book and thrown a big twist at the end. I was expecting a twist of some sort, but instead the ending just felt anti-climatic.

The length and suspense of the book frustrated me as well; the story is set over the space of a day (albeit a very long day) and each conversation is meticulously recorded (as we see the day through the eyes of Detective Moran, interspersed with flashbacks of the girls). My English teacher would have said that this long, drawn out prose was a metaphor for how drawn out the investigation had been, the suspense that the detectives felt, but all it made me was tired. I found myself skimming the last couple hundred pages as I just wanted to get to the end and find out if my theories were right. Suspense is great, but not when there's 500 pages plus of it (alternatively, it's very likely I'm just incredibly impatient and have a small attention span and a penchant for short(ish) books).

I wasn't keen on the paranormal aspect of the book either; generally my feelings are that paranormal fiction should be kept far away from crime fiction. With all the ghosts and the magic, I was genuinely fearful at one point that Chris' killer would wind up being a ghost too. Paranormal activity detracts away from the reality of the book and makes it less scary, and whilst the ghost sightings were probably just teenage hysteria, the thing with the lights isn't so easy to explain. I'd like to presume the 'magic' was merely teenage imagination and the strength of sisterhood - I hope this is this case - but I doubt this was what was intended.

However, bad bits aside, this book was incredibly enjoyable! The relationship between Detectives Moran and Conway was perfect and the way their characters and their relationship progressed was beautiful to watch. Both characters were deeply flawed, dissimilar and yet so alike and through the day and the book we get to see them bond.



Tana French captures all the angst and the drama of being a teenager brilliantly, 3.5 out of 5 stars. Now I'm off to read everything else she's written.