The Secret Place: A Novel (Unabridged)
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3.6 • 151 Ratings
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
“An absolutely mesmerizing read. . . . Tana French is simply this: a truly great writer.” —Gillian Flynn
Read the New York Times bestseller by Tana French, author of the forthcoming novel The Hunter and “the most important crime novelist to emerge in the past 10 years” (The Washington Post).
A year ago a boy was found murdered at a girlsʼ boarding school, and the case was never solved. Detective Stephen Moran has been waiting for his chance to join Dublin’s Murder Squad when sixteen-year-old Holly Mackey arrives in his office with a photo of the boy with the caption: “I KNOW WHO KILLED HIM.” Stephen joins with Detective Antoinette Conway to reopen the case—beneath the watchful eye of Holly’s father, fellow detective Frank Mackey. With the clues leading back to Holly’s close-knit group of friends, to their rival clique, and to the tangle of relationships that bound them all to the murdered boy, the private underworld of teenage girls turns out to be more mysterious and more dangerous than the detectives imagined.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Tana French is a master of psychological suspense, and the fifth book in her Dublin Murder Squad series shows exactly why: Her books blend the suspense of police procedurals with some deeply felt emotions. The Secret Place starts with 16-year-old schoolgirl Holly handing Detective Stephen Moran a major clue in a cold-case murder. Moran sees a big chance for career advancement, but there are obstacles in his way: Holly is the daughter of a manipulative detective—and overprotective papa bear—named Frank Mackey, and Moran’s partner on the case, Antoinette Conway, is hiding her own secrets. There are also supernatural forces at play, with the murdered boy’s ghost lurking in school hallways and a clique of teen girls conjuring spells together. The Secret Place unfolds with the steady, terrible inevitability of a nightmare. Narrators Stephen Hogan and Lara Hutchinson expertly handle the story’s alternating points of view, capturing Moran’s ambition and fear along with Holly’s struggles and deep desire to fit in. We highly recommend this compelling and heart-pounding listen.
Customer Reviews
Great!
Tana French has become a “can’t miss” of the crime genre.
Stereotypes
I’m a big fan of Tana French mysteries. In general, They are well written and complex. However, I didn’t enjoy “The
Secret Place” and do not recommend it.
I found the characters were stereotypical, two dimensional, and cringe worthy. I attended a well- known, New England, boarding school in the ‘80s and am very familiar with mean girls and the pressures to do drugs and have sex. However, the novel’s characters are very poorly developed. Their meanness, pettiness, and preoccupation with drugs and sex, I find completely unrealistic. If a man wrote this book, I would regard him as sexist.
Hard to understand. Thick accent. Talks fast. Whispers
Hard to understand. Thick accent. Talks fast. Whispers