Author: Tana French

Reader: Stephen Hogan

Short Review: The fourth book in French’s excellent Dublin Murder Squad series, read by the talented Stephen Hogan. Previous books in the series include In the Woods and The Likeness. They can be read out of order without spoiling the series.

Long Review: Each book in French’s series follows a different detective. Mick “Scorcher” Kennedy is lead detective in this novel, and he’s as tortured as his predecessors. He appeared in the third book in the series as a supporting character and seemed like a complete ass. Here, we get more of a sense of who he is and why. French loves to incorporate intricate psychological matter into her books, and she reaches a new high this time around. The case Kennedy works is centered in Broken Harbor, a broken down vacation community turned failed exurban development near Dublin. Kennedy’s family used to vacation there, and it holds a number of painful memories for him. As the case progresses, Kennedy also ends up caring for his mentally-ill sister Dinah. As their family history emerges, the setting and circumstances of Kennedy’s case seem particularly poignant.

Kennedy is investigating the murders of most of the Spain family–only the mother survives, and she is comatose when Kennedy gets the case. He’s training a new detective, Ritchie, and dispenses as much cop wisdom as he can think of as they work. The case itself is baffling, the department is a mess, as ever, and it seems like French made all of the knots too fast to untie for a while. I’ll say no more about the plot. I loved the book and the others in the series: In the Woods and The Likeness.

Hogan is a particularly good reader. He does a great job with a variety of different Irish accents, slipping from working class north Dublin to broad country to posh and back again. His pacing and diction are excellent. I’ll seek out other books he narrates.

Author: Tana French

Reader: Heather O’Neill

Short Review: Tana French’s strong second novel read beautifully by Heather O’Neill. In this sequel to In the Woods, we follow Cassie Maddox in a strange undercover murder investigation. Cassie gets back on her feet and then gets knocked right back off balance imitating her deceased doppelganger while looking for a killer, a motive, a weapon, and a lot of answers.

Long Review: In a strange series of events, Detective Maddox is called in to the murder investigation of someone who has stolen the identity of Cassie’s undercover persona, Lexie Madison. Sliding into her double’s life, Cassie has to find the actual identity of her doppelganger and who killed the fake Lexie, all the while trying to pretend to be Lexie, keep her love-life and career afloat, and recover from Operation Vestal.

I won’t say more about the plot. I will say that Heather O’Neill, who I’m not otherwise familiar with, did a fantastic job as a reader. She has a good Dublin accent, does a decent job with a Northern Irish accent, and, thankfully, can sing. Singing matters in this book because one of the major characters sings in several scenes, and I’m very glad not to be subjected to something hard to listen to. O’Neill has real skill as a reader, and I look forward to listening to more audio books she narrates.

I liked In the Woods but felt like it had a couple of flaws. French’s second novel is much improved. I prefer Cassie to Rob, the protagonist of the first novel, so I’m glad the author changed focus for this novel. Cassie was a major character in the previous book, and I was forever wishing French would drop Rob and switch to Cassie in that novel, since Rob clearly wasn’t thinking straight through most of the story. Cassie is a more reliable narrator, and also generally a more attractive character. She’s the kind of detective I think I’d want on my side, were I ever unfortunate enough to need a detective on my side. She recognizes her mistakes as she makes them, tries to keep the victim in mind as well as the killer, and is just generally intriguing and bright. The rest of French’s characters are likable and interesting as well. In many mysteries, the plot trumps the characters and once you’ve figured out “who done it” it’s hard to maintain interest in a cast of cardboard cut-outs. Thankfully, I was still interested in the fate of these people long after I’d puzzled out where French was going in the mystery.

 In the Woods

 Author: Tana French

 Reader: Steven Crossley

Short Review: This Edgar Award winning novel traces a murder in Ireland, following the detectives investigating the case and flashing back to an earlier, similar unsolved case. It is a good novel beautifully read by Crossley, but the novel itself annoys me in a few spots (which I won’t actually describe, because we try very hard to not throw spoilers about).

Long Review: This is French’s first novel, and it bodes well. Set in Dublin, the book follows detectives (Adam) Rob Ryan and Cassie Maddox as they investigate a puzzling murder case in the Dublin suburbs. A young girl is found dead on an archaeological site, and no motive or suspects present themselves. The case seems to echo one from Ryan’s childhood, though, and the connections between the two cases become obsessions for Ryan and Maddox.

I won’t say more about the plot of the book. I will say that Crossley is a very talented reader. The book is Rob’s first-person narrative, so Crossley plays Rob throughout. Though Rob is Irish, he was educated at a British boarding school, so has a posh English accent. Crossley has a wonderful voice and very good diction, but he doesn’t sound overly mannered or formal as he reads. Because the book is narrated by Rob, this is vital. First person narrators rarely sound like elocution professors, at least in my head. Also, Crossley generally does a good job with the Irish accents that crop up in the book, which makes a big difference to me.

Cassie really comes off as the protagonist, at least to me. She is at the center of French’s second book, The Likeness, and that alone makes me want to read it. Cassie is smart, funny, and strong, and really the sort of female character I wish would show up in every book and movie made from here on out.

The bits of the book that annoy me are part and parcel of the story, so I forgive the author. I think Ryan and Maddox are well-drawn characters. I just don’t always like Rob very much. Frankly, I want to throttle him. That’s really required by the book though, so I don’t hold it against French. I have read the book on paper as well as listened to the audiobook, and my reaction to the plot and to Ryan doesn’t really change from one format to the other.