Faithful Place: A Novel

5 Stars: Loved itTana French knocked her third book, Faithful Place, out of the park. It isn't just any old whodunit sleuthing story, but a great, emotionally charged story about love, longing and dysfunctional families that definitely raises the bar in the mystery genre. Her voice is fresh and believable. The prologue completely sucked me and I had to buy this book. I don't normally read prologues; they often seem weird and confusing to me so I skim the first few sentences, head straight for chapter one, then maybe I'll go back and read them once I'm committed. But not this time, not this one:"In all your life, only a few moments matter. Mostly you never get a good look at them except in hindsight, long after they've zipped past you: the moment when you decided whether to talk to that girl, slow down on that blind bend, stop and find that condom. I was lucky, I guess you could call it. I got to see one of mine face-to-face, and recognize it for what it was. I got to feel the riptide pull of my life spinning around me, one winter night while I waited in the dark at the top of Faithful Place.I was nineteen, old enough to take on the world and young enough to be a dozen kinds of stupid..."Brilliant. Tana French does an outstanding job of setting the tone, setting up the main character, Francis Mackey, as the now long suffering middle-aged detective haunted by an event from his past."...Over more than half my life it had worn itself a nice little corner in my mind, like a bullet lodged too deep to dig out; I didn't feel the sharp edges, mostly, as long as I didn't touch."I couldn't help but fall in love with Frank Mackey, and find out his story. He's complicated, real, and oh so believable. The pacing was perfect and as the plot unfolded, I was on the edge of my seat. Flashbacks are handled skillfully and without confusion. Every character is rich and well rounded with their Irish slang and quick wit. I laughed. I cried. I wanted a pint of Guinness.Faithful Place wins a spot on my "favorite book" list, and Tana French as a new "must read" author.The characters of Faithful Place explode off the page, including the setting. French makes you feel as if you are in Dublin experiencing everything along with her characters and you feel the cadence of the dialogue to your very core.Excellent novel, highly recommended.

This is Tana French's third novel, and I've read each one. She writes beautifully. "A Faithful Place" so faithfully captures the accents and cadences of Irish speech, for example, that after reading it, I found myself speaking with a slight brogue. While a bit cliched, the characters are vivid and, for the most part, convincing. The exception is the protaganist, Frank's, daughter, Holly, who is far more sophisticated than any nine year old that I know or have raised. She might have been more convincing had French depicted her as age 12; she'd still have been innocent enough to experience the trauma that French describes, but old enough to have the questions and reactions that French attributes to her.I also had some difficulty with the premise; i.e., that Frank's family was so awful that he'd avoided most of them for 22 years. French makes the family fairly awful, but, even when we've learned the whole story -- which Frank did not know when he left -- his reaction seems to exceed their awfulness. French has him repeat, over and over again, how much he hated and wanted to leave home. Okay -- your Dad is an alcoholic and your Mom is emotionally destructive. Leave home -- but avoid all but one of your siblings, including your harmless elder sister and puppy-like younger brother, for 22 years? I found the character's motivation less than convincing.Finally, like several other readers who have posted reviews, I figured out "whodunnit" early in the text -- indeed, shortly after the villain had been introduced. The solution to the mystery was way too obvious, and the "surprise" about Frank, revealed near the end of the novel, did not work: first, because something of that nature was unlikely to have been concealed from the reader by the character (who tells us everything else about himself and his family) and secondly, because it feels gratuitous -- i.e., does not really explain anyone's behavior. Although I think that French meant for this "surprise" to render the character morally ambiguous, as Frank says about his younger brother, Kevin, in another context: the Frank whom we'd come to know "would not do that." For a plot twist to work, there has to be some ground laid. For example, and in contrast, in Martin Amis's new novel, "The Pregnant Widow," when we learn the "surprise," we say "Of course -- that was it!" Not so here -- we say "Oh, please!"You ask -- given all this criticism, why four stars? The answer is that, although I was pretty sure of the ending (and was right), and thought that the novel had flaws, this was a gripping, intelligent, sensitive tale of family trauma and lost love. Moreover, French writes so well that, even when you know where you're going, you are interested in how you get there. The novel's flaws -- a couple of weak characters, a premise that leaves you a bit skeptical, and an obvious villain -- did not ruin it for me. On the contrary, I couldn't put it down.So five stars for a good read -- and three for the flaws-- more or less average to four. I'd recommend this book to a friend.

Embora teoricamente um thriller, na verdade ele nem tenta ser. De mistério muito menos; o culpado é tão evidente que, num primeiro momento, eu pensei fosse a clássica "misdirection". Mas o outro possível culpado morre antes da metade do livro, e só resta esperar.Chega a ser impressionante o blábláblá em favor de Tana French - que não escreve mal, pelo contrário. (Li o original.) Mas os personagens são todos antipáticos; não há uma pessoa que seja (ou que o narrador encare como sendo) naturalmente simpática, a não ser uma irmã, que, no fundo, nada tem de diferente da outra. Um dos irmãos é detestável, o outro é daqueles que querem agradar a qualquer custo.O livro, na verdade, é sobre uma família irlandesa EXTRAORDINARIAMENTE disfuncional e infeliz. A autoria parece pouco se importar em manter o leitor interessado no crime; pelo menos três quartos do livro são dedicados à família completamente disfuncional de que o personagem é filho e da família "normalmente" disfuncional de que ele era marido (é divorciado) e é pai.Tanto assim que, depois de "revelado", para surpresa de ninguém, quem é o assassino, segue-se um final de capítulo bastante longo e mais dois capítulos longuíssimos, tratando de (em termos de livro policial) nada.Enfim: se você que ler um livro interessante de mistério, não é este; se quer ler sobre famílias disfuncionais ou crimes incidentais à história, leia Dostoiévski, ou Tolstói, ou Flaubert, ou Faulkner. Porque este livro é insatisfatório para qualquer dessas finalidades.

That's the best by Tana French so far (I'm reading her fifth 'Murder Squad' at the moment). It's 'Angela's ashes' with the detective/thriller twist. Best writing ever - dialogues are brilliant, depiction of the characters are memorable.

The person responsible for the murder was predictable several chapters before the name was revealed.

I don’t think of Tana French as a crime writer, in the same way as I don’t regard John Le Carre’s novels as spy fiction. The quality of their writing transcends their respective genres. This is the third book in French’s “Dublin Murder Squad” series, novels that are loosely connected with some overlapping characters but absolutely work as stand alone books, and I think it is the best of those I have read so far. The plot revolves around a 20 year old cold case, but the book is about much more than that - it is about familial ties, whether you can ever escape your past, and the intense power of your first love. The writing is superb, some of the descriptions so perfect I re read them several times just for the pleasure of it. The past and the present are seamlessly interwoven throughout the book. In the central character Frank Mackie, French has created a charismatic but flawed personality around whom the plot revolves. Highly recommended.

This is more a portrait of a generation in the Liberties, Dublin, than a detective novel. For much of the novel, we find a detailed description of the mores of the inhabitants of The Liberties both in the 80s and 2007. The novel is full of black humour and Irish humour. The "mystery" is only secondary to the description of atmospheres, customs and types. If you expected more as the previous two novels, you'll probably be somewhat disappointed. However, it is certainly interesting to see how French manages to create something new in her series. If the previous novels were hybrids of the detective novel and Gothic elements, this is a hybrid involving nostalgia, social commentary and the detective novel. Although I wanted more Gothic influx, I must admit that I enjoyed the novel because of its social panorama.