A Look at Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad Series
Image via Viking Penguin
The Trespasser
Synopsis: Antoinette Conway and Stephen Moran are back, but this time it’s Antoinette’s story. The pair are given a case that on its surface looks to be just another crime of passion. No one believes Antoinette when she expresses her belief that this case is more than it appears. To top it all off, she’s being harassed by members of the Murder Squad who don’t like a woman among their ranks. Or are the threats and shadowy figures stalking her somehow connected to the case?
Why to read it: I always anticipate the release of French’s novels with a mix of excitement and dread. They are the kind of books you can’t put down because you just want to know the outcome, but once you reach the ending you are left empty and drained. She crafts her characters with such care, you come to care about them even knowing the eventual outcome now after five previous books. French has yet to disappoint with her novels and this one looks to be no different.
Antoinette was an interesting as seen from Stephen’s point of view in Faithful Place, but as the rest of French’s books reveal there is always more to the character we have yet to uncover. The basic premise seems to be that Antoinette will be rattled by both the case and treatment by her fellow detectives and we may get to see a crack in that tough exterior of hers.
It will also be interesting to see Stephen through Antoinette’s point of view and how the events of The Secret Place have changed their relationship. The decision to tell each story through a new character makes French’s writing so exciting. Each book manages to be both familiar and brand new at the same time. We are pulled back into the world of the Dublin Murder Squad as if we are a part of it, recognizing the faces and remembering the cases of books past. You don’t have to read the books in order or so everyone says, but if you don’t you will be missing out on this intricate balance of past and present, memory and history. Plus, who doesn’t like a good murder mystery?
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The Trespasser comes to bookstores and online retailers on October 4th.