Tana French’s The Trespasser is more than your standard police procedural. The story is told through police officer Antoinette Conway’s eyes, a furious, wary, excellent cop who has been treated badly by her sexist squad for a long time. Her partner Steve Moran is genial and sharp. He is the only one Antoinette seems to trust, which makes sense given how much she’s been sabotaged by the other cops.
Antoinette and Steve catch a murder case that involves a young woman found dead in her home. Slowly, they begin to unravel the full story, with French showing how the police build a case block by block, from following false trails to the dawning truth.
But it isn’t French’s plotting that makes The Trespasser such a good book, though the plot is very well done and compelling. It’s French’s characterizations that steal the show. Her protagonist Antoinette is a complicated, ferocious force to be reckoned with. Slowly, French opens up the character so that bit by bit, we begin to understand Antoinette’s responses to the world, the depth of her story, and the important role Steve plays in her professional life. Steve is not just a sunny foil to Antoinette; he is more complex than that. Since we see the world through Antoinette’s eyes, Steve’s character is seen through the cracks of her own perception, but the reader can catch glimpses of his own strengths and weaknesses. Most importantly, their relationship is built on trust; no matter how different they are, they have each other’s backs. The rather dramatic differences in their personalities makes their relationship all the more intriguing.
This mixture of excellent characterization and a solid plot made this a great read. Interestingly, the story is less about who did it and more about the why. When reading a book like this I rush through wanting to know the guilty party, but in this book the answer to that question took a back seat to the killer’s character and motivations. We learn who the killer is earlier than expected, so the story is propelled on who all the characters were and are. I found it very satisfying.