The Secret Place (Dublin Murder Squad, #5)

by Tana French

[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.