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A review by jess_mango
The Secret Place by Tana French
4.0
The 5th installment in the Dublin Murder Squad series takes us to a girls' boarding school where one year ago a popular boy from a nearby boys' school was found murdered. When an anonymous postcard declaring "I KNOW WHO KILLED HIM" shows up on the school's "Secret Place" bulletin board, 2 detectives from the murder squad show up to investigate. It is actually Holly Mackey, daughter of the Murder Squad's detective Frank Mackey who brings in the postcard. She is a student at the boarding school. Detectives Antoinette Conway and Stephen Moran reopen the case and spend time interviewing a number of the students trying to determine who put the postcard on the board and who committed the murder.
The narrative switches between Stephen's perspective and the perspective of the girls of the boarding school.
As always with Tana French novels, this was a literary thriller that pretty much pulled me right in. She does a great job creating a cast of characters, this time with 8 boarding school girls, who for me were initially hard to tell apart...but the author does say they all try to groom themselves in a similar manner (Fake tanner, blonde hair, groomed eyebrows etc.) so that may be intentional. I really liked the connection between the two detectives in this story.
What to listen to while reading...
I Will Possess Your Heart by Death Cab for Cutie
Pretty Girls Make Graves by The Smiths
Glory and Gore by Lorde
The Devil Within by Digital Daggers
One Time by Marian Hill
Secret by The Pierces
Teen Idle by MARINA
The narrative switches between Stephen's perspective and the perspective of the girls of the boarding school.
As always with Tana French novels, this was a literary thriller that pretty much pulled me right in. She does a great job creating a cast of characters, this time with 8 boarding school girls, who for me were initially hard to tell apart...but the author does say they all try to groom themselves in a similar manner (Fake tanner, blonde hair, groomed eyebrows etc.) so that may be intentional. I really liked the connection between the two detectives in this story.
What to listen to while reading...
I Will Possess Your Heart by Death Cab for Cutie
Pretty Girls Make Graves by The Smiths
Glory and Gore by Lorde
The Devil Within by Digital Daggers
One Time by Marian Hill
Secret by The Pierces
Teen Idle by MARINA