BOOK REVIEW: Tana French's Faithful Place

Tana French's Faithful Place  is the sequel to her mystery novels The Likeness and In The Woods (see MadProfessah's A/A+ review).

Unlike other popular mystery writers like Ian Rankin, Julia Spencer-Fleming  or Sue Grafton, Tana French does not just ave one main protagonist in her murder mystery novels. Since Faithful Place is her third book and all three of her books share in common that the main character works for the Dublin Police Department, people have started calling her books the Dublin Murder Squad series. Her first book In The Woods featured Rob Ryan as the main character, while The Likeness featured Ryan's partner Cassie Maddox as the main character while her third book  Faithful Place features Cassie's former boss Frank Mackey. It's an interesting gimmick, "chaining" her novels together by switching point-of-view by promoting formerly supporting characters in one novel to main character status in the next.

This is just one signal French is sending that her books are not your everyday mystery novels. French has an amazing gift for characterization and dialog. Some reviewers think her latest book is her best one to date, despite all the awards won for her debut book. I was more impacted by her second book, probably due to the fact that Cassie is her most attractive protagonist of the three.

I've previously stated that In The Woods is about the intense, emotional platonic relationship formed between a man and a woman who work together, while The Likeness is about the intense emotions which arise  between adults who have formed a relationship like a  surrogate family. Well, Faithful Place is about the intense emotions which always exist between siblings who have grown up in a dysfunctional family headed by a violent alcoholic father and an emotionally vicious mother.

This family is the one that Frank Mackey bailed out of at age 19 when he was stood up by his sweetheart Rosie Daly after they had made plans to run off to England and start a life together. He decided to leave his vaguely criminal, financially depressed and depressing neighborhood named Faithful Place on his own and never looked back.

Twenty-two years later Rosie Daly's suitcase shows up and Frank is drawn back to his old neighborhood and the remnants of his family and acquaintances who still live there. This being a murder mystery, bodies do start to show up, which shatters Mackey's world forever. Because of obvious conflicts of interest, Mackey is banned from working on the case but as we already know, rules and regulations are not his strong suit. So, he convinces a young, earnest "floater" policeman named Stephen Moran to be his eyes and ears into the official investigation while he uses (and abuses) his multiple emotional and familial connections to the crimes to get closer and closer to the devastating truth. 

Title: Faithful Place.

Author: Tana French.

Length: 400 pages.

Publisher: Viking Adult.

Date: July 13, 2010.

OVERALL GRADE: A/A+ (4.07/4.0).

PLOT: A+.

IMAGERY: A.

IMPACT: A.

WRITING: A.