The Secret Place – Cannonball Read 17

“If I had to get there without friends, I could do it. Had been doing it. I’d never met anyone who brought me somewhere I wanted to stay, looked at me and saw someone I wanted to be for good; anyone who was worth giving up the more I wanted down the line.”

The Secret Place (Dublin Murder Squad, #5) by Tana French

July 30, 2020 by narfna 3 Comments

This is still my least favorite Dublin Murder book, but I found a little something more in it this time. I was actually kind of dreading revisiting this one, because the prospect of getting inside all those teenage girls’ heads just felt like way too much to handle at the moment. I used to be a teenaged girl, and I do not miss it. French is such a good writer, so evocative, that I just knew it was going to bring me right back to […]

Teenage Kinks

The Secret Place by Tana French

December 13, 2019 by Zirza Leave a Comment

Teenagers are weird. I like them. I teach high school; it’s not a job where you’ll last long if you don’t like the target demographic. But they are weird. Half their brains are all grown up and the other half is stuck in childhood. Not always the right parts. They are fiercely loyal, especially to their friends, and they’re at the point where they are developing their own world. Parents not allowed. Except when they get stuck, of course. If you’re lucky. Detective Stephen Moran […]

Belated Bingo – Not My Wheelhouse

The Secret Place by Tana French

December 2, 2019 by cheerbrarian Leave a Comment

TANA FRENCH TANA FRENCH. TANA. FRENCH. TANA FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENCH. I. Love. Tana French. She. Is. The Best. The reason that this was on my bingo card as “Not My Wheelhouse” because I pondered and was surprised to discover that murder mysteries are no longer my wheelhouse, it is just not a genre I really turn to anymore, and um, that’s got to change, because never am I more engrossed then when watching a murder mystery unfold and then unravel. In doing some reading about French I […]

Keeping things interesting

December 31, 2016 by yesknopemaybe Leave a Comment

3.5 stars. The Secret Place was somewhat of a departure for Tana French. I’m not sure if it was quite as successful for me personally, but it makes me really happy to know she’s experimenting and keeping things fresh. She could just churn out novels and people would read them even with diminishing returns at this point. It makes me love her all the more to know that she has no intention of phoning it in. Detective Stephen Moran is surprised one morning to see […]

“If I’ve learned one thing today, it’s that teenage girls make Moriarty look like a babe in the woods.”

November 3, 2015 by narfna Leave a Comment

Well, there goes my last Tana French book. When is the next one??? (Seriously. When. I need it.) Like the previous four Tana French books (all part of the Dublin Murder Squad series), this book follows a detective from the Murder Squad as they investigate a murder, all the while it gets sneakily personal and deep. Also like previous Tana French books, it is secretly obsessed with friendship, how connections between people are formed and broken. This one she breaks the mold a little, though. […]

Not your typical boarding school brats

December 30, 2014 by competitivenonfiction Leave a Comment

The Secret Place by Tana French was far better than I’d expected. I picked it up because it gets great reviews and because I was interested in moving away from the more romantic fare that I had been reading and back into a mystery. I didn’t realize it until after I’d finished the book, but this is the fifth in the Dublin Murder squad series, and while it stands on it’s own, I have the feeling that there were some references to the previous novels that I didn’t […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
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Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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