Faithful Place by Tana French (2010). I am reading this book now and it is seriously good. I enjoyed her first book, In the Woods that won the Edgar in 2007 even though the ending exploded all over the place in ridiculousness. Yes, I will grudgingly admit that Tana French is wordy as hell but her writing is compelling. Her characters are well developed. She has an excellent ear for dialogue and great sense of time and place. Forget all the naysayers. Read this book. Yes, it’s the last one published but these are all standalones following a different person from The Guards or Murder Squad. Will post my final thoughts when I’m finished and trust me, that won’t be long. Stay tuned. Update: Tana French next book, Broken Harbour comes out this August March 2012 July 2012. Declan Burke has all the details here and here. (update on book release)
Faithful Place, Tana French
This was my favorite of the three.
I started ‘In the Woods’. I need more time to read! I can’t believe I’m looking forward to a nine-hour flight at the end of the month, just so I can read.
Wordy is probably one of the reasons that I love her books even though I can see the shortcomings. I can appreciate Hemingway, but after a book like that I feel I am thirsting for words
I don’t mind her being wordy one bit especially if it’s keeping me interested. Love your new digs and have subscribed.
WordPress is a great site but I am not impressed by their mathematical abilities. They just told me I had a new subscriber and added “Congratulations! You now have 0 subscribers”
All three books had such different voices, at least in my head and in the Audible versions I listened to. I love recurring characters, the feeling that I’ve met a group of people at a party and get to spend more time with each of them. I didn’t expect to like Frank Mackey as much as I did, which is a testament to the author’s skill. That a fourth title is coming is great news.
Sort of OT: In addition to French’s books, I’ve made a point of listening to other favorite authors–Stuart Neville, Adrian McKinty, Stuart MacBride, Declan Hughes, Ken Bruen–when their books are available in audio format. When that happens, I am there.
I am a big fan of Stuart Neville (and thanks for the reminder as I have his follow-up in my virtual library) and I think Ken Bruen is brilliant. The rest of the authors I have in my stash and hope to get to them one day soon.
re Tana French, I will admit to starting The Likeness but it didn’t grab me like Faithful Place did. Just goes to show that this author is getting better with each book.