The Secret Place

The Secret Place by Tana French, 452 pages.
Tana French is such a good writer. Often I will find myself not wanting to read another book by an author because I loved one book so much and I don't want to be disappointed. I think that this is mostly With French and some other authors it has been a bit different; the first book seems pretty good, and each subsequent book is better. This one has an interesting story; a boy died last year at an exclusive girl's school. His body was found on the grounds, but the case was never solved. A student at St. Kilda's, Holly Mackey, who is also the daughter of the Murder Squad's  boss, finds a note that claims that someone knows who killed the young man. When she turns the note in to Stephen Moran, an officer she admires / trusts, he is able to use this to get assigned to the case along with Antoinette Conway. Conway, a very good detective, has been having a difficult time gaining the trust of or trusting her fellow detectives. It is these two detectives, these two well-drawn characters who make the story even more interesting. Narrated by Stephen Hagan and Lara Hutchinson.

The Trespasser

The Trespasser by Tana French, 449 pages.
Detective Antoinette Conway doesn't really trust the rest of her squad. She has a bit of faith in Stephen Moran, her new-ish partner, but he might be too much of a kiss-ass to the higher-ups and the rest of the squad for her to truly trust. When they are handed the investigation of a "domestic"; a woman murdered, apparently by her slightly obsessive boyfriend, in what looks to be an open-and-shut case, Conway is at first insulted, both because she seems to only get assigned to the domestics, and because a more experienced detective, Breslin, is assigned to help. Conway and Moran suspect that there is either more to the case than they initially thought, or that they are being forced out of the squad, as they undergo constant review by their chief, strange items appear in the press, and they suspect Breslin of steering the investigation. Tightly written, and a lot of fun to read; I look forward to going back and reading all the Tana French novels. Great for fans of police procedurals and well-plotted mysteries. Excellent narration on the audio by Hilda Fay.

The Unwritten vol. 3: Dead Man's Knock/Mike Carey & Peter Gross

The Unwritten, Volume 3: Dead Man's Knock; Mike Carey &; Peter Gross; graphic novel, 160p

Okay in my review of Volume 2 of this series I mentioned how Carey and Gross have been taking advantage of the graphic novel medium to really make the most of the story being told. This volume, I must say, takes that to new heights, with the addition of a whole chapter formatted as a CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE BOOK. In addition to be bascially the coolest cheesy thing to come out of the 80s/early 90s, the CYOA format is a frankly brilliant way to tell the story of a character who is currently in a coma. The jumbled mindset! it works so well!
Aside from that totally awesome chapter, the rest of the book holds up well, and I feel like the plot is really...congealing, for lack of a better word. Gelling? meshing? This plot feels solid, the characters are in good/interesting/dramatic places in their development, and I cannot wait until the next volume. THE DRAMA! 

In the Woods by Tana French

In the Woods by Tana French, Mystery, 429 pages.
This was our November book discussion book. The first in French's popular Dublin Murder Squad series, this introduces Detectives Rob Ryan and Cassie Maddox. They are two of the newer members of the squad, and while they have proved themselves to be good detectives, their newest case could be too much for them. A twelve-year-old girl has been found murdered in the woods in Knockaree, outside of Dublin. What no one else besides Cassie knows is that Twenty years ago, Rob, known as Adam Ryan then, was the twelve-year-old survivor of a gruesome crime in those same woods. His memories of that crime and his reactions to this, threaten to disrupt the carefully re-built life he has made for himself and threaten the careers of both officers. The ending, told from a particular point of view, left some of the book group members dissatisfied, but we had a good discussion.

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