Faithful Place - Tana French

Rating: 4 stars
Shelf: Now Reading

I rarely ever rush out to buy a book. First of all, I don't make a lot of money and so jacketed hardcovers are out of my price range. Secondly, I'm lazy and forgetful. Tana French trumps my 'First of all' and 'Secondly'. I counted down the days for this and then, as soon as I got paid of course, I rushed out to the bookstore to buy it. I finished it in two days.

French spins a vivid tale with characters that are more real than your mom. I loved every gripping moment.

Purchase Now from Amazon: Faithful Place: A Novel

Since I wasn't regularly posting reviews around the time that I read both The Likeness and In the Woods, I thought I'd include them as well. Get y'all to read the entire series:


The Likeness
Rating: 5 stars
Shelf: 2009 Shelf

I just re-read my review of IN THE WOODS - my feelings on this book are so drastically different from my feelings on the first. THE LIKENESS helped me to form a greater respect for IN THE WOODS. Tana French is most definitely a master at character development. Her characters are so vivid, so realistic, so incredibly real to the reader - she achieves what most can not - a lasting impression. A group of friends you wish you'd really known.

In IN THE WOODS, I think I was never supposed to like Rob Ryan. French had such a picture of who Rob was and didn't stray from that at all, not even to get sympathy for him from the readers. THE LIKENESS focuses on Rob's partner, Cassie Maddox. Rob only enters the story a handful of times, through Cassie's remembrances of the previous case. And Cassie is a considerably more likable character.

They all were. There wasn't a single character I despised in this whole novel. Even the guy who did it (thank god there wasn't anything left unanswered in this one!). I also had NO CLUE what the outcome would be at any time. French took me for a very enjoyable ride with this one.

I'm actually really very sad that I finished. I think I'm going to sit with this one for a while.

Purchase Now from Amazon: The Likeness: A Novel

In the Woods
Rating: 3 stars
Shelf: 2008 Shelf

I was sorely disappointed with the outcome of this book. While entertaining, I don't think it was very solidly written. The Prologue is a great trick - written so eloquently you think this is what you are in for. But you aren't. A lot of whining and excuse after excuse by the narrator. I hated every time he sized a person up. I usually don't like women/men who are... Not a very good objective detective - maybe that is what French was trying to tell us? I knew from the moment the character entered the picture whodunit, it was just a matter of how. Watching buttloads of SVU preps you for that - and it isn't truly about Katy Devlin's case until the very end. Instead, French teases us with Peter, Jamie and Adam. The fact that she doesn't deliver at all on this story line is fantastically disappointing. She plants red herring after red herring, and they are obvious you just want to cut through it and get to the point! All that time wasted on the rape and the laughing animal in the woods... what?

I want to know who or what killed those three children and I want to know now!

Purchase Now from Amazon: In the Woods

The Series Characters

In the Woods - Rob Ryan
The Likeness - Cassie Maddox (Rob's partner in In the Woods)
Faithful Place - Frank Mackey (Cassie's Undercover boss in The Likeness)

I really hope the next book is about Stephen, the kid cop from Murder that Mackey takes under his wing in Faithful Place.