Title - The Secret Place
Author - Tana French
Summary -
In an upscale boarding school for girls, a young boy was found murdered over a year ago. Teenage Holly Mackey finds a photo pinned to a board, a community board the school calls The Secret Place; the photo is of the murdered boy, sixteen year old Christopher Harper. The caption under the photo reads, I KNOW WHO KILLED HIM.
Holly is not like the other girls who go to St. Kilda's, she doesn't come from a well off family, she is the daughter of a cop. A Detective and she knows what she has to do. But she cannot take this to her father so she takes it to the only cop she knows who has treated her like an adult.
Cold Case Detective Stephen Moran has been waiting for his chance to get the attention of Dublin’s Murder Squad and move up in the department. So when teenage Holly Mackey walks in with the photo of the deceased boy, he knows this is his one chance to work a homicide and get a shot at being part of the Murder Squad. Only problem is, the Detective he would have to work with is Antoinette Conway, a tough as nails female Detective who guards her secrets even better than the school of teenage girls they will have to investigate.
Together Moran and Conway investigate the year old murder of Chris Harper and unravel the rumors and innuendos of teenage lust and hate amongst bitter cliques and fierce enemies. Between loyalty and lies. Only Conway doesn't trust Moran, his ambitions or his ties to Holly Mackey and her father. The school itself would rather keep this death in the past and its influential patrons are not above calling the Detectives superiors to stop the investigation.
In one day, Moran and Conway must find the killer and who put the photo up in the Secret Place.
Review -
Tana French is wicked. The lilt and drive of her novels are fierce and there is a very strong ring of truth to all her characters. Young Detective Moran must weigh between his sense of the truth and his own ambitions as he unravels the truths amongst all the innuendos and lies told by this entire school of teenage girls. Truths that will both shock and sadden you.
If you ever hated high school. French shows you why in HD and surround sound. The cliques between the cool kids and the outcasts are powerful and honest. Both with blood on their hands and heartlessness to preserve their place above all else.
The mystery is tight and well woven, each strand unraveling slowly with more than a few red herrings to have you guessing until the very end. The dynamic between the two Detectives is intriguing as they struggle to work together while not fully trusting one another.
A terrific and very well written novel. Another great mystery by Tana French.
No comments:
Post a Comment