Take a photo of a barcode or cover
thejanewayprotocol 's review for:
The Secret Place
by Tana French
The DMS books just keep getting better and better. And each one is so unique in the style that she tells the story. This time, the story is told between two different voices (actually several voices), and in two different time lines.
We are reintroduced to a couple of familiar characters in this installment, although it is not necessary to have read her previous novels to understand what is going on with them.
Stephen Moran is arriving for another day at his job at Cold Cases when he is told he has a visitor already waiting for him: a now 16 year old Holly, who he had interviewed as a witness back when she was a small child. It is because of this she choses him to bring what she has: a new clue to an unsolved murder that took place at her private school last year, when a boy from a near by school was found dead on their grounds.
Moran sees this as his ticket back on the track to where he wanted to be: Murder Squad. He uses his in with Holly as a bargaining chip to insert himself in the investigation, and along with Detective Antoinette Conway (who has her own motivations to get the solve) they delve back into the world of privilege, teenage angst, revenge and savagery.
This story line was a lot more dramatic than I'm used to getting with French, almost like I was watching an episode of Pretty Little Liars. It was addictive, and I had to keep reading to find out what was happening. But at the same time, there was a lot of observation and perspective in this novel. Sometimes it was as if I was reading two different novels at the same time. In Moran's perspective it was a murder mystery, and in Holly and her friends' perspective it was almost a contemporary YA read. In some authors this probably would have really annoyed me, and interrupted the pacing of the story. It did interrupt the pacing somewhat, but I didn't really care. The writing and the story was that good.
The only negative I had was that I wish the female Detective wasn't portrayed as such a hindrance. She failed the first time around trying to solve the case, and although she has this tough as nails persona, she basically gave the entire reins of the case over to Moran to solve, and when I sit back and think about it, she contributed very little to solving the case. She's going to get credit for the solve, but even so, it was really clear that Moran could have basically done this on his own. We don't get many female detectives in this series, not since [b:The Likeness|5941114|The Likeness (Dublin Murder Squad, #2)|Tana French|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1538062804l/5941114._SY75_.jpg|6504351], and neither came out the other end looking that great. It would be nice to see some more female empowerment in her novels.
We are reintroduced to a couple of familiar characters in this installment, although it is not necessary to have read her previous novels to understand what is going on with them.
Stephen Moran is arriving for another day at his job at Cold Cases when he is told he has a visitor already waiting for him: a now 16 year old Holly, who he had interviewed as a witness back when she was a small child. It is because of this she choses him to bring what she has: a new clue to an unsolved murder that took place at her private school last year, when a boy from a near by school was found dead on their grounds.
Moran sees this as his ticket back on the track to where he wanted to be: Murder Squad. He uses his in with Holly as a bargaining chip to insert himself in the investigation, and along with Detective Antoinette Conway (who has her own motivations to get the solve) they delve back into the world of privilege, teenage angst, revenge and savagery.
This story line was a lot more dramatic than I'm used to getting with French, almost like I was watching an episode of Pretty Little Liars. It was addictive, and I had to keep reading to find out what was happening. But at the same time, there was a lot of observation and perspective in this novel. Sometimes it was as if I was reading two different novels at the same time. In Moran's perspective it was a murder mystery, and in Holly and her friends' perspective it was almost a contemporary YA read. In some authors this probably would have really annoyed me, and interrupted the pacing of the story. It did interrupt the pacing somewhat, but I didn't really care. The writing and the story was that good.
The only negative I had was that I wish the female Detective wasn't portrayed as such a hindrance. She failed the first time around trying to solve the case, and although she has this tough as nails persona, she basically gave the entire reins of the case over to Moran to solve, and when I sit back and think about it, she contributed very little to solving the case. She's going to get credit for the solve, but even so, it was really clear that Moran could have basically done this on his own. We don't get many female detectives in this series, not since [b:The Likeness|5941114|The Likeness (Dublin Murder Squad, #2)|Tana French|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1538062804l/5941114._SY75_.jpg|6504351], and neither came out the other end looking that great. It would be nice to see some more female empowerment in her novels.