Tana French is an American-Irish writer, dubbed the First Lady of Irish crime fiction by The Independent. The Secret Place, her fifth novel, published in 2014, takes place almost entirely in St. Kilda, a secondary private all-girls’ school in Dublin, where a sixteen year old boy from a nearby school had been found murdered on the grounds the year before. His killer was never identified, and the investigation has gone dormant. In the opening chapter, Detective Stephen Moran, stuck in Dublin’s Cold Case unit, is visited by a schoolgirl, who rooms at St. Kilda’s, bringing him a note she claims to have found posted on a student bulletin board (nicknamed The Secret Place) which reads, “I know who killed him.” Moran, seeing this as an opportunity to work on an active murder case, takes the note to the detective originally assigned to investigate the murder, Antoinette Conway.

The pairing of Moran and Conway makes for delightful reading. When the two of them visit the school that same day to try to identify the author of this note, they seem an ill-matched pair. She is gruff, cold and unlikable, while he is kindly and empathic as they conduct interviews with schoolgirls there. Though a trope in crime fiction, their separate roles as bad cop/good cop is the best part of this novel. They quickly narrow down the investigation to two cliques boarding together at the school. While French tries hard to capture the conversations and personalities of these young women, her heavy use of their slang feels overblown after a time. I was especially put off when she introduced magical realism into the plot to explain the bonds between the cliques. It struck me as far-fetched and quite unnecessary to carry the plot forward.

The day-long investigation on the school grounds is seen through the eyes of Detective Moran. Its interspersed flashbacks are narrated by a number of the different schoolgirls who were possibly involved with the murder victim. This novel is by no means a fast read, but to her credit, French takes the effort to create complex characters and to craft a multilayered story. Despite my reservations on some of the aspects of the novel, it kept my interest throughout. I wouldn’t be surprised or disappointed if French again pairs Moran and Conway in another crime mystery. ( )

Here’s how I imagine it went down:

French and her besties are at their high school reunion weekend. They’re sitting around drinking wine and reminiscing when someone decides to pull out the old ouija board from the attic storage. Much to their surprise, they channel [a:Agatha Christie|123715|Agatha Christie|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1589991473p2/123715.jpg]’s voice from [b:Cat Among the Pigeons|16342|Cat Among the Pigeons (Hercule Poirot, #36)|Agatha Christie|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1275665326l/16342._SY75_.jpg|2728434] Flush with success, they try again, and discover [a:Ray Bradbury|1630|Ray Bradbury|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1445955959p2/1630.jpg]’s [b:Something Wicked This Way Comes|248596|Something Wicked This Way Comes (Green Town, #2)|Ray Bradbury|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1409596011l/248596._SY75_.jpg|1183550] ( my review).

Alright; maybe I just have my own upcoming reunion on my mind. But I was captivated by the way The Secret Place integrated the turbulent days of youth at a girls’ boarding school with a murder investigation by Dublin’s finest, proving again that French has talent in spades. If there is one thing her prior four books in the Murder Squad series have made clear, French is great at character creation. And atmosphere. Oh, and dialogue. Okay, fine; she’s good at all the components that make a book enjoyable. This time she’s also nailed the police procedural aspects of the case.

The story begins with Holly and her three friends hanging at a playground, musing on the end of summer and their upcoming year together at boarding school. Fast forward to Detective Stephen Moran at the Cold Cases Unit. Holly appears at the police station requesting a meeting with him, six years after when they last met in events covered by The Faithful Place. The exclusive boarding school she resides at has a noticeboard where students can put up anonymous confessions. Holly has found a postcard with an old picture of murder victim Chris Harper. The words “I know who killed him” are pasted across in cut-out letters. Moran seizes the opportunity to wedge his foot in the door of the Murder Squad, and personally takes the note to the case’s lead detective, Antoinette Conway. As she is currently without a partner, he offers her the benefit of his disarming interview skills when she returns to the school to re-interview the students. What follows is an exploration of what led to the death and how the detectives retroactively piece the story together.

The plot timeline is unusual, as it combines the current investigation with viewpoints from the girls and from Chris during the prior year. The investigation takes place within one incredibly busy day, while the events in the girls’ lives cover the entire previous year at school. It’s an interesting kind of time shifting for a murder mystery, but I came to enjoy it. Instead of learning about the prior relationships and circumstances through flashbacks, we live it with four of the girls and the victim, bringing a heightened sense of doom to their daily lives.

Characterization is stellar. The introduction to Murder Squad Detective Conway:

“Antoinette Conway came in with a handful of paper, slammed the door with her elbow. Headed for her desk. Still that stride, keep up or fuck off… Just crossing that squad room, she said You want to make something of it? half a dozen ways.“

Or the (re-) introduction of Detective Frank Mackey:

“I know Holly’s da, a bit. Frank Mackey, Undercover. You go at him straight, he’ll dodge and come in sideways; you go at him sideways, he’ll charge head down.“

Marvelous, really; contrast that with the books that focus on the appearance of the character first, or contain long soliloquies where the character helpfully identifies their history and preferences. In the prior examples, French distills two very different personalities into brief thoughts, so that when we finally meet them, dialogue can be focused and snappy, but still shaded with the layers of meaning from knowing the character. It is a beautiful technique that mirrors real life; if you follow me through my day, I don’t muse on each person interact with; rather, our interactions are defined partially by our history and word choice describing it would reflect it. French’s writing captures that shading without huge, potentially distracting expository swathes.

One of the aspects I enjoyed most was the delicate balance between Moran and Conway. As her fierce personality is evident from the start, I was fascinated by Conway’s attempt to develop a working relationship with her. Initially, Moran is ingratiating himself out of expedience, but it becomes clear Conway understands his intentions. French does a nice job of keeping both Moran and the reader off-balance, guessing at what Conway thinks while having a sense of where it is going.

The setting is immersive, bringing back memories of adolescence in all its insecurities:

“Two years on, though, Becca still hates the Court. She hates the way you’re watched every second from every angle, eyes swarming over you like bugs, digging and gnawing, always a clutch of girls checking out your top or a huddle of guys checking out your whatever. No one ever stays still, at the Court, everyone’s constantly twisting and head-flicking, watching for the watchers, trying for the coolest pose.“

and glories:

“Darkness, and a million stars, and silence. The silence is too big for any of them to burst, so they don’t talk. They lie on the grass and feel their own moving breath and blood… Selena was right: this is nothing like the thrill of necking vodka or taking the piss out of Sister Ignatius… This is nothing to do with what anyone else in all the world would approve or forbid. This is all their own.“

It is worth noting for those who are new to French that while The Dublin Murder Squad is nominally a series, the connection is through the web of relationships in the police department. Each story tends to focus on a particular member of the squad and their emotional entanglement to the case at hand. Although they may reference events in a prior story, they usually aren’t spoilerish, nor is reading them in order needful. In this case, French seems to draw back from a detective’s emotional dissolution and instead focus on a more positive resolution.

I found The Secret Place to be a complex, satisfying story, delicately balanced between mystery and character story. There was no part that I was even considered skimming, as the flashbacks held as much interest as the police procedural. In fact, reviewing was a challenge, as I kept thumbing through my notes, tempted by my saved passages to re-read. Though I read an advance copy, I suspect this is one I’ll have to add to the paper library.


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Many thanks to NetGalley and Viking for providing me an advance copy to review. Quotes are taken from a galley copy and are subject to change in the published edition. Still, I think it gives a flavor of the evocative writing. ( )

Not my favorite book in the series. ( )

What an amazing story. It took me a chapter or two to slide right back in to this world. It feels like I've been gone forever. But then it was.....perfect.

I remember this guy. It took me about a hundred pages for me to let go of my anger at him! ha! it was tough, to try to remember a reason to like this guy - I disliked him so much in the last book

but this one is, again, sheer genius. Don't stop writing [a:Tana French|138825|Tana French|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1277505771p2/138825.jpg]

I would LOVE another installment! or anything you want to write! ( )

Perhaps it's because I read this with the first book from the series relatively fresh in mind but this just couldn't live up to In The Woods. By the time it became a kind of laborious chore reading and I constantly marked the pages I'd read, turning back to see my progress, I knew it was time to call it quits. ( )