The Books of Tana French

In The Woods, The Likeness and Faithful Place are some of the best mysteries I have recently read and which may also claim an exceptional quality in the mystery world: a young voice. That, in itself, should not guarantee them the many awards and high popularity. But it's a mark of distinction and a welcome change from all other voices, too many of them 50 an up. Nice to know that young people can solve murders, too.

The bookends are better than the middle. And, in spite of current praise and more awards, the first better than the last. For one thing, In The Woods has the freshness of a surprise. A relatively new police detective, Rob, and his even less experienced partner, Cassie, must find the killer of an adolescent girl that strongly reminds him of an unsolved crime that claimed the lives of his two childhood friends. No need to go into plot summaries. Here is a list of all that works with this book:

• the protagonist's voice, Rob, who hides as much as he tells, and hooks you to absolute surrender. You just want him to keep talking
• the relationship between Rob and Cassie, their unusual friendship, the too real feel to everything that's right and everything that's wrong
• the subtle way how things unravel
• being taken for a ride by a masterful writer who hides clues in plain sight of an experienced mystery reader

Two things must happen for a mystery to work, IMHO. An "I didn't see that coming," moment, even though it was all there. And an "I don't want it to end." In The Woods has both, particularly in the unexpectedness of its denouement. It gets thumbs up, five stars, gold stars and my strongest recommendation.

The Likeness follows Cassie, undercover, impersonating a dead girl, her doppelganger (identical double), to find her killer. The idea stretches the limits of possibility, so it's harder to buy into it. But, again, she has an impeccable voice, and a cast of four other college students. It is great fun to read. It's not The Woods.

After the success of the two books above, I couldn't wait for Faithful Place. Frank Mackey, undercover policeman who made a strong appearance in The Likeness as Cassie's case lead, is back, this time trying to solve a twenty-two year old murder, that of the girlfriend he meant to elope with as a teenager, but who disappeared the night of their agreed escape from their Dublin working class neighborhood and dueling families. The portrait of Frank's family is a work of art. His alcoholic father, his abused mother, his siblings all suffering from different degrees of disappointment, the life he fled from and the consequences this escape had for him and those he left behind. Tana French peels the layers of the mystery with precise strokes, allowing a slow zooming in, until there's nothing to hide. It's as much murder mystery as a chronicle of a class and a time. In this regard, it couldn't be better.

Early in the book, a character enters the scene as an obvious bad seed. It was with a little smirk that I saluted Miss French. Nice, I thought. She's throwing an obvious one at us. I wonder who the killer will be, because this character couldn't possibly be it. Throughout the book, she plants enough red herrings to keep the reader wondering who the killer might be. So I must confess a little disappointment that I wasn't fooled.

Maybe I should get off the mystery drug so I can recover my innocence. I won't blame Tana French for my jadedness, though. Every one of these books is worth a day in the sun. Or a whole vacation.