Ok this was not one of favourite Tana French’s books but i did persevere and in the end i did enjoy it for the most part.

I will still continue to read this series of books.

Thank you to Netgalley for a copy for an honest review

A fantastic police procedural read that had me gripped from the very start. I loved everything about this book from the great characters and the story, an excellent read.

One of my favourites of the Dublin Squad series because of the prickly, larger than life voice of Antoinette Conway, the main protagonist.

Absolutely brilliant book, loved it from start to finish. Full of intrigue, mystery, back-stabbing colleagues, and a great storyline. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys well written police procedural novels.

Tana French was recommended to me by another crime writer, and what a great recommendation it was! The Trespasser was fast-paced throughout and a great blend of character-driven plot and police procedural story line.

The book kept me guessing until the very end and the suspense was tight through the entire novel. I think it's very easy in this genre for characters to become caricatures - particularly the tough female me-against-the-world detective and the belligerent and bullying male colleagues - but that certainly wasn't the case here, and I really enjoyed the dynamics of Antoinette and Stephen's relationship.

Like the 87th precinct in Isola, her ‘Dublin Murder Squad’ series focuses on one, at most two, central figures in each novel, though every time her characters return to the squad room you meet the other detectives. It isn’t clear when that sobriquet appeared; if you look at pictures of the books’ original covers, you don’t see it. It appears to be a publicist’s strap line. In any case, and as French acknowledges, there is no Dublin Murder Squad. There isn’t always a lot of police procedure either. She is on her second woman detective, having left Cassie Maddox behind, at least for now. Antoinette Conway has had two outings, with Stephen Moran sporadically in evidence. They don’t get on well. Not at all. Except that they do. And they all fuss about their class positions. There is something else, but I won’t join the spoilers, though I will point out that the grumpiness is everywhere in this series, sometimes from below, or against the high-flyers, especially when they’re women. Irish men seem just as terrified by talented women as men anywhere else.
French's structures are clear and comprehensive, and have grown in strength as she has progressed. Some characters appear and disappear, others reappear. How that is managed is one of the keys to a successful police procedural series. I couldn’t say whether, in Broken Harbour, French’s forward planning had really started; certainly, as things progressed, she was continuously experimenting, with first or third-person narration, with characters who could be used once. By The Secret Place, Cosway and Moran seemed a settled pair, with each of them suffering from the kinds of cheering misinterpretations which keep us all going with self-serving stories of how we got where we are. By The Trespassers, she was willing to kill some darlings. What makes the book memorable is in part the ways it continues from its immediate predecessor, in part, though, there is a well-seen and well-described persecution of Cosway which is all too familiar to people from minorities and all women, the sniping prejudice, the aggressive unwelcome that includes discovering that someone has urinated in your locker, the refusal of your colleagues to treat you as a something more than an excrescence in their way. Not the best of her books, perhaps, but a fine depiction of men with power who think they can get away with anything they like. The murder squad’s boss has a particularly humane appearance as things draw to their end. If only politicians could emulate a fictional character’s ability to take responsibility for what goes wrong in his squad. The Trespasser is doing very well on the prizes front, including the best crime fiction book of the year in the Irish Book Awards.

The latest book in Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad series is possibly my favorite so far. It's not a fast paced story with action on every page (if you're looking for that try a different author) but a character driven, complex murder mystery with some of the most intense scenes I've ever come across. It definitely reminded me just what I love so much about her writing.

I've been a big fan of Tana French's books for many years. Her first book In The Woods was truly gripping and second book The Likeness was even better. I did find however that the subsequent books weren't quite as good (mostly due to main characters I couldn't relate to) and it made me that little bit wary of The Trespasser. I knew I could depend on French to write believable and realistic characters and a clever story but was concerned that yet again I wouldn't like the main character and would find it a little hard going.

Thankfully however this was not the case. From the very first page I loved Detective Antionette Conway. She's tough, cynical and good at her job but due to the continued harassment, vicious pranks and terrible cases she gets at work is close to breaking point. An unstable lead detective is a common feature of French's books and for me it's always the highlight. Even though it is a regular theme however, I found that I could really relate to Antoinette and while I didn't necessarily agree with how she dealt with things I could definitely understand the reasons behind her actions.

The fact that she is so seemingly unstable and appears to be hated by everyone on the squad (with the exception of partner Stephen Moran) adds so much complexity to this story. She trusts no one and suspects everyone. When she and partner Moran receive what should be a straightforward murder case she's immediately suspicious when her boss assigns another detective to shadow them. Is there more to this case than meets the eye, are they using it to find a way to get her off the squad or is she just paranoid and over reacting?

It does initially seem like a by the numbers case with an obvious suspect but this is a Tana French book and nothing is ever that straightforward, or is it? This book literally had me questioning everything. It is very much a police procedural, they visit the scene of the crime, look at the evidence and interview suspects and friends of the victim but there is a layer of underlying tension that runs throughout that makes even the most mundane activities feel loaded and intense. There are many twists and turns in the story and the odd red herring to throw you completely off track. It definitely keeps you guessing until the very end and honestly I think I changed my mind about who did it every other chapter.

Conway is not the only complex character in this story either. A lot of thought and detail has gone into every single person who features and each one of them feels real and believable. There are no stereotypes and everyone has their faults and virtues. The relationships and interactions between them are also well crafted and I particularly loved the partnership between Conway and Moran and how it changes and develops throughout the story.

Probably the biggest highlight of this book for me however were the interview scenes. I swear with hand on heart that I don't think I've ever read (or even watched) anything quite so intense. There is one scene in particular towards the end of the book where they are interviewing a suspect which literally blew me away. The writing and changing dynamics between those in the room had me holding my breath. This book is worth reading for that scene alone.

Overall, I absolutely loved this book and would recommend everyone read. It is the 6th in the series but there are different main characters in each book and very little overlap between them so they can be read out of sequence or as stand alones (I haven't read book 5 yet).

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Ten years ago, a debut crime novel was published. When I picked it up in the library I was intrigued, and so I brought it home. When I began to read I was captivated by the story, impressed by the quality of the writing, and just how much there was to the book.

It was contemporary police procedural, with a wonderfully real Irish setting; it was a compelling character study, written with real insight and understanding; it was a perceptive state of the nation novel …

That book was ‘Into The Woods’ by Tana French.

It wasn’t perfect by any means, but it was so very, very promising.

I had to buy a copy to keep, and I have loved watching the author do that same thing in so many different ways in the books that followed.

There have been six books to date; linked, but not quite in the way series are usually linked. Each book is centered around a member of the Dublin Murder Squad, who has usually appeared in an earlier book before becoming the protagonist of their own story. A story that will usually draw out their own story as well as the part they have to play in the investigation of a crime.

It was as if the author was walking among them, with a perfect understanding who to draw forward and who steer towards the shadows.

This time she makes the simplest of switches and it is wonderfully effective.
Ten years ago, a debut crime novel was published. When I picked it up in the library I was intrigued, and so I brought it home. When I began to read I was captivated by the story, impressed by the quality of the writing, and just how much there was to the book.

It was contemporary police procedural, with a wonderfully real Irish setting; it was a compelling character study, written with real insight and understanding; it was a perceptive state of the nation novel …

That book was ‘Into The Woods’ by Tana French.

It wasn’t perfect by any means, but it was so very, very promising.

I had to buy a copy to keep, and I have loved watching the author do that same thing in so many different ways in the books that followed.

There have been six books to date; linked, but not quite in the way series are usually linked. Each book is centered around a member of the Dublin Murder Squad, who has usually appeared in an earlier book before becoming the protagonist of their own story. A story that will usually draw out their own story as well as the part they have to play in the investigation of a crime.

It is as if the author was walking among them, with a perfect understanding who to draw forward and who steer towards the shadows.

This time she makes the simplest of switches and it is wonderfully effective.

The two detectives at the centre of this story are the two who were at the centre of the last story. Then, Steve Moran, who was angling for a place on the murder squad, and Antoinette Conway, who already had her place there, had met and were working together for the first time; now nearly a year has passed and they are professional partners.

Then he was at the centre of the story; now she is. That may sound like a small change – and maybe it was- but it allowed me a much greater understanding of each of them. Antoinette Conway had seemed so cynical, and now I began to understand why. Steve Moran got on with people, he had an easy charm; but I began to think that maybe he sometimes used that, calculating the effect it might have. A different kind of cynicism.

They were left on the fringes of the squad, dealing with the dull routine work. Because Conway had never been accepted, and because Moran had been partnered with her.

The case that fell to them at the end of a shift seemed routine, but they were both pleased to have a case of their own to work.

Aislinn Murray, an attractive young woman, was found dead in her own home on a Saturday night. Her table had been set for a romantic dinner for two, but that dinner would never leave the kitchen. She had been struck in the face and she had fallen and hit her head on the fireplace. There was no sign of forced entry, no sign that she had been taken by surprise. And so it seemed that her dinner guest had killed her – maybe deliberately, maybe accidentally – and fled the scene. All they had to do was find him.

Detective Bresslin, who had been assigned to oversee their work, wanted them to do just that and close the case as quickly as possible, so that they could all get on with other things.

When Conway and Moran they meet Aislinn’s friend Lucy they realise that the case may not be as simple as that, and that there would be much more to Aislinn’s story than anyone had realised. Conway was sure that she had met her before ….

The story follows every detail of what happens, and I was fascinated. I had ideas, but those ideas and my feelings about different characters shifted as new facts came to light. I really wasn’t sure where this was going to go, how the story was going to play out until the very end.

This is a big book for the story it holds, and I can understand why some people wouldn’t like it, but there are many reasons what I did.

Antoinette Conway’s narrative voice is perfectly realised, and she became a very real, very complex woman. She could be infuriating and I couldn’t always agree with the things she said and did; but I understood that she had her reasons and I understood what made her the person she was.

She carried me through the story.

This case changed her, and changed things for her, as is often the way with Tana French’s lead characters.

Every character who passed through this story was well drawn. The dialogue, the settings, the atmosphere – every element in this book worked, and that allowed the story to live and breathe.

I loved the way that themes were repeated through the stories of the detective and the victim. Each of those stories held some improbabilities, but they were credible and they said much about the issue and the choices that young women can face in the world today.

I’m avoiding details, because I don’t want to spoil the story, and because it is so much a whole that it is difficult to pull things out and have them make sense on their own.

The book works so well, as a police procedural and as a human drama; and it says what it has to say about the world very well indeed.

I hope I won’t have to wait too long for the next one.

Tana French never disappoints and this is another brilliant read.

Great read and easy to follow story line. Look forward to reading more from this author