A review by vanityclear
The Secret Place by Tana French

3.0

I really should have left more space between reading In the Woods/The Likeness and the rest of the Dublin Murder Squad—none of the subsequent books have grabbed me quite as hard. I enjoyed this one about the same as Broken Harbor, which is to say, not as much as the first two and not even as much as Faithful Place. The trouble lies in the narrators: Scorcher Kennedy and Steven Moran are simply not as developed or complex as the others—not even Rob Ryan, who at least was in an interesting state of denial/supression/projection. The most interesting things about these two dudes are the women around them, Scorcher's sister and Steven's would-be partner, Antoinette Conway. I hope for this reason that I'll enjoy The Trespasser more, which flips the primacy of Moran and Conway.