Faithful Place, by Tana French

And finally, we get to the new book! I have been very excited for this book ever since I heard it was coming out, which was maybe not that long ago, but still! And I got it from the library the first day I could, but I was all busy with reading other books and it took me like A WEEK before I could read it. The travesty!

Maybe it was all that excitement from the first paragraph, or maybe it's because I got myself all worked up by reading the previous two books first, but I felt rather let down by this installment. :( No, I know what it was... French's books have always been more character-driven than mystery-driven, but this book pretty much threw away the mystery story in favor of an in-depth look into Frank Mackey, who I didn't care much about in the first place. Sigh.

The mystery, what it is, is first that a suitcase shows up in Mackey's family's neighborhood, and it belongs to the girl he meant to run away to England with many years ago. She never showed, but Mackey went off anyway and never went home... until this suitcase thing. It quickly turns out that his girl, Rosie, is dead under some concrete in a dilapidated building, and then before you can wrap your head around that Mackey's brother ends up dead, having fallen out of a window in some manner or other. Mackey, being Mackey, goes off to do his investigating while being bombarded on all sides by family and history.

It's interesting, sure, but I'd gotten used to hearing about French's characters in bits and pieces and anecdotes, not all at once, and because there's so much focus on Mackey's history the mystery part of the book falls flat. I wouldn't tell you not to read this book, but I would personally rather go read In the Woods again first.

Rating: 7/10
(Countdown Challenge: 2010, A to Z Challenge, Support Your Local Library Challenge)

See also:
Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin'?

Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.

The Likeness, by Tana French

So after I finished In the Woods, I had a dilemma. Should I just read Faithful Place, French's new book about a character introduced in her second book, since the books are definitely standalone? Or should I go read those 450 pages of The Likeness again? Obviously, I chose the latter, mainly because I get twitchy about reading things out of order and also because in discussion with my friend Cari I had realized that I could barely remember a thing about this book, the one that I loved so much more than In the Woods.

So I sat down and read this book, but it was not nearly as good the second time around as In the Woods was, nor was it as good as I remember it being in the first place. The premise is spectacular: Cassie Maddox gets called in to help in a murder investigation because the dead girl not only looks startlingly like Cassie but is also carrying around ID that says she's Lexie Madison, a person that Cassie and her boss made up when she was in Undercover. Creepy, right? Said boss, Frank Mackey, has sort of commandeered the investigation because he has decided that it would be awesome to see if Cassie could go undercover as the dead girl into the house where she lived with her four nearest, dearest, and possibly only friends.

It's an interesting thought experiment, but I think the main interest I had in this book came from wondering if and when Cassie was going to get caught. Knowing what eventually happens really takes the suspense out of it, and I was just sort of like, "Okay, whatevs." In the Woods had a cleverly psychotic killer, but (spoiler alert?) this one doesn't, so there isn't that same awe at watching the investigation unfold. But I'm still amazed how realistically Cassie embeds herself into the house, and I do love how the house itself is an important character in the story, so I will maintain my love for this book. Just maybe I won't read it again.

Rating: 9/10 (was a 10... sigh...)
(Flashback Challenge, Support Your Local Library Challenge, Chunkster Challenge)

See also:
Reading Matters
reading is my superpower

Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.

In the Woods, by Tana French

I read this book once before, waaaaay back in the day (well, relatively speaking). I absolutely loved it, and I told everyone who had ears that it was a wonderful book and that they should go read it and why were they still talking to me etc. So when I got to pick the book for and lead a discussion group for my library practicum, I was like, "Have they read In the Woods? Because they should have. I will now make them."

And then I packed up my books to send down to Jacksonville with Scott, and I packed this book omg! So I had to borrow it from the library. The library must really love me.

So I got like six people to read this book all at once, which was delightful, and of course I had to read it again, because although I remembered how it ended I knew there was a lot more in the middle that I was missing in my memory. Oh boy, was there. I had forgotten how much confusion there is — they're looking for a killer, obviously, but then there's this other case that might tie in, and there are so many leads to follow up on and people to talk to and it's a wonder this case even gets solved at all!

And knowing the ending already... man. I could see where all of these threads were leading, slowly but surely, and I was still like, "No! Don't let it happen! CAN'T YOU SEE WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?!?!?!" Oh. It's kind of devastating. You can see how ridiculously clever, and plotting, and foresight-having, and completely insane the killer is, and I have a certain respect for that even though of course we should use such powers for good. Of course.

What I'm saying is, if you haven't read it already, seriously, go do that please, and if you have read it and you have some free time on your hands, read it again. Wonderful.

Rating: 10/10 (it was a 9 before, but the ending is much less disappointing the second time around!)
(Countdown Challenge: 2007, Flashback Challenge, Support Your Local Library Challenge, Chunkster Challenge)

See also:
Reading Matters
reading is my superpower
books i done read

Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.

The Likeness, by Tana French (18 November — 21 November)

Just go read this book right now. Seriously. Well, actually, read In the Woods first, and then read this one.

The Likeness is vaguely related to its predecessor, In the Woods, in that the main character in this new one, Cassie Maddox, was a secondary character in the first one and sometimes references the events of the first book. You could definitely read them out of order, but I really think I liked this one so much because of the way it follows off the first.

Anyway, what we have here is Cassie Maddox, a recent-ish transfer from Dublin's murder squad to its domestic violence squad, called in on a murder case because, well, the girl that got murdered looks exactly like her. Also, the girl is identified as Lexie Madison, the name that Cassie used during an undercover operation a long time ago. Cassie is naturally drawn to the weird coincidence of it all, and when her old undercover boss asks her to pretend to be a recovered Lexie for a while to find out who killed her, Cassie's in.

It's not easy, of course; Lexie lived with her four best friends who knew nearly everything about each other, and it could have been one of them who stabbed Lexie. As Cassie settles in to her undercover role, she also settles in to her Lexie role and loses that objectivity that is so necessary to solving the case.

This book. Was. AWESOME. Whenever I wasn't reading it, I was wondering what was happening to Cassie and how the heck she was going to pull it off. I was very seriously anxious about getting back to read the book as soon as possible. If that's not a good recommendation, I don't know what is.

Rating: 10/10
(Countdown Challenge: 2008)

In the Woods, by Tana French (31 October — 1 November)

What a great book! Just go read it.

Our narrator, Rob Ryan, was found in the woods at the age of twelve with blood in his shoes and without the two friends he was meant to be with. He has no memory of what happened, and has mostly gotten along in life, until now.

Now Ryan is a detective who is put on a dead-twelve-year-old case in the same tiny Ireland neighborhood he once lived in, in the same woods he was once found in. He hopes both that the case is and isn't related to his, but it doesn't really matter — this murder is practically unsolveable. All leads point to nothing, there are no suspects, and Ryan is having a bit of trouble keeping himself distanced from the case.

Of course, then something clicks and the mystery unravels, and you see all the clues you should have seen before, and the solution is pretty darn cool. I'm definitely excited to read the next in the series, The Likeness.

Rating: 9/10
(Countdown Challenge: 2007)