From Tana French, author of the forthcoming novel The Hunter, “the most important crime novelist to emerge in the past 10 years” (The Washington Post), the New York Times bestseller called “the most stunning of her books” (The New York Times) and a finalist for the Edgar Award.
Back in 1985, Frank Mackey was a nineteen-year-old kid with a dream of escaping hisi family's cramped flat on Faithful Place and running away to London with his girl, Rosie Daly. But on the night they were supposed to leave, Rosie didn't show. Frank took it for granted that she'd dumped him-probably because of his alcoholic father, nutcase mother, and generally dysfunctional family. He never went home again. Neither did Rosie. Then, twenty-two years later, Rosie's suitcase shows up behind a fireplace in a derelict house on Faithful Place, and Frank, now a detective in the Dublin Undercover squad, is going home whether he likes it or not.
Not nearly as engrossing as [b:In the Woods|7014156|In the Woods|Tara French|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1272670086s/7014156.jpg|7259808] or [b:The Likeness|1914973|The Likeness A Novel|Tana French|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255897334s/1914973.jpg|6504351], both of which I awarded 5 stars (according to the stats on my Goodreads profile, 5-star ratings make up 3% of my 783 ratings, for reference). Whatever quality those two books had that sucked me in, Faithful Place just didn't have.
It did have excellently realized characters though, and for the first time, I really FELT like these books were taking place in Ireland. I also zipped through it in two sittings, which is the fastest I've gotten through a book in a very long time. If I didn't have the first two to compare it to, I wouldn't have found a single flaw in it. It kept me at just enough distance, though, that I didn't feel like I was inside Frank Mackey's head, the way I felt I was in Rob's and Cassie's heads, and I didn't have to forcefully extricate myself from the pages when I was done.
I feel like I'm being unfairly negative, because it was a very good mystery, so I'll just blame it on Ms. French for being so startlingly good the first two times around.
Reading updates
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Started reading
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18 July, 2010:
Finished reading
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18 July, 2010:
Reviewed