Synopses & Reviews
The eagerly anticipated follow-up to the
New York Times bestselling psychological thriller In the Woods.
Six months after the events of In the Woods, Detective Cassie Maddox is still trying to recover. She's transferred out of the murder squad and started a relationship with Detective Sam O'Neill, but she's too badly shaken to make a commitment to him or to her career. Then Sam calls her to the scene of his new case: a young woman found stabbed to death in a small town outside Dublin. The dead girl's ID says her name is Lexie Madisonthe identity Cassie used years ago as an undercover detectiveand she looks exactly like Cassie.
With no leads, no suspects, and no clue to Lexie's real identity, Cassie's old undercover boss, Frank Mackey, spots the opportunity of a lifetime. They can say that the stab wound wasn't fatal and send Cassie undercover in her place to find out information that the police never would and to tempt the killer out of hiding. At first Cassie thinks the idea is crazy, but she is seduced by the prospect of working on a murder investigation again and by the idea of assuming the victim's identity as a graduate student with a cozy group of friends.
As she is drawn into Lexie's world, Cassie realizes that the girl's secrets run deeper than anyone imagined. Her friends are becoming suspicious, Sam has discovered a generations-old feud involving the old house the students live in, and Frank is starting to suspect that Cassie's growing emotional involvement could put the whole investigation at risk. Another gripping psychological thriller featuring the headstrong protagonist we've come to love, from an author who has proven that she can deliver.
Review
"Suspense writing is clearly French's forte. Rather than employing cliff-hanger tactics, such as ending chapters with striking discoveries, French relies on more delicate revelations to engage readers all along." Rocky Mountain News
Review
"French creates remarkably complex characters while gradually unpeeling the layers of her story in this rich and insightful psychological thriller. A stunner." Library Journal
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"Police procedures, psychological thrills and gothic romance beautifully woven into one stunning story." Kirkus Reviews
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"Ms. French resists genre conventions defiantly enough to have written a long, rambling book, one that is more interested in character revelations than in 'Aha!' moments about the plot....Cassie herself remains a strong enough character to sustain interest." Janet Maslin, The New York Times
Synopsis
The haunting follow up to the Edgar Award-winning debut In the Woods
Tana French astonished critics and readers alike with her mesmerizing debut novel, In the Woods. Now both French and Detective Cassie Maddox return to unravel a case even more sinister and enigmatic than the first. Six months after the events of In the Woods, an urgent telephone call beckons Cassie to a grisly crime scene. The victim looks exactly like Cassie and carries ID identifying herself as Alexandra Madison, an alias Cassie once used. Suddenly, Cassie must discover not only who killed this girl, but, more importantly, who is this girl? A disturbing tale of shifting identities, The Likeness firmly establishes Tana French as an important voice in suspense fiction. And look for French's other mysteries In the Woods, Faithful Place, Broken Harbor, and The Secret Place for more of the Dublin Murder Squad.
Tana French's newest novel, The Secret Place, will be published by Viking on September 2nd, 2014.
Synopsis
The sensational new novel from one of the most talented crime writers alive” (The Washington Post)
The photo on the card shows a boy who was found murdered, a year ago, on the grounds of a girls boarding school in the leafy suburbs of Dublin. The caption saysI KNOW WHO KILLED HIM.
Detective Stephen Moran has been waiting for his chance to get a foot in the door of Dublins Murder Squadand one morning, sixteen-year-old Holly Mackey brings him this photo. The Secret Place,” a board where the girls at St. Kildas School can pin up their secrets anonymously, is normally a mishmash of gossip and covert cruelty, but today someone has used it to reignite the stalled investigation into the murder of handsome, popular Chris Harper. Stephen joins forces with the abrasive Detective Antoinette Conway to find out who and why.
But everything they discover leads them back to Hollys close-knit group of friends and their fierce enemies, a rival cliqueand to the tangled web of relationships
that bound all the girls to Chris Harper. Every step in their direction turns up the pressure. Antoinette Conway is already suspicious of Stephens links to the Mackey family. St. Kildas will go a long way to keep murder outside their walls. Hollys father, Detective Frank Mackey, is circling, ready to pounce if any of the new evidence points toward his daughter. And the private underworld of teenage girls can be more mysterious and more dangerous than either of the detectives imagined.
The Secret Place is a powerful, haunting exploration of friendship and loyalty, and a gripping addition to the Dublin Murder Squad series.
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About the Author
Tana French grew up in Ireland, Italy, the United States, and Malawi. She is the author of
In the Woods (winner of the Edgar, Anthony, Macavity, and Barry awards),
The Likeness, Faithful Place and Broken Harbor (winner of the Los Angeles Times prize for Best Mystery/Thriller). She lives in Dublin with her husband and two children.