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A review by lauraborkpower
The Secret Place by Tana French
4.0
I was thrilled to see that French's newest book features Stephen Moran, who she introduced in Faithful Place, and who I felt was so much more appealing than that book's protagonist, Frank Mackey. Mackey plays a role in this new story, but it's Stephen who takes the lead.
French plays with point-of-view in this book, and it's successful. The story of Chris Harper's murder is approached from the present, with Moran and his "partner" DI Conway, and Moran is narrating first person as he and Conway tread though the lies upon lies told by two packs of teenage boarding school students.
And while Moran and Conway move backwards to retrace what happened and solve Chris's murder, the other side of the narration is moving forward from months before the murder happened. This approach uses a third person point-of-view that dips into each of the minds of the main players in this drama, a quartet of best friends: Holly, Julia, Selena, and Rebecca.
As usual, French's prose is rich and paints a beautiful setting for the characters to navigate. And, as usual, the setting is essential to the conflict. I really enjoyed this story, especially the new narrative style and subject matter French is playing with. The audiobook is terrific as well, using Stephen Hogan to narrate the first person Stephen Moran sections and Lara Hutchinson to narrate the girls' parts.
French plays with point-of-view in this book, and it's successful. The story of Chris Harper's murder is approached from the present, with Moran and his "partner" DI Conway, and Moran is narrating first person as he and Conway tread though the lies upon lies told by two packs of teenage boarding school students.
And while Moran and Conway move backwards to retrace what happened and solve Chris's murder, the other side of the narration is moving forward from months before the murder happened. This approach uses a third person point-of-view that dips into each of the minds of the main players in this drama, a quartet of best friends: Holly, Julia, Selena, and Rebecca.
As usual, French's prose is rich and paints a beautiful setting for the characters to navigate. And, as usual, the setting is essential to the conflict. I really enjoyed this story, especially the new narrative style and subject matter French is playing with. The audiobook is terrific as well, using Stephen Hogan to narrate the first person Stephen Moran sections and Lara Hutchinson to narrate the girls' parts.