Sunday, July 25, 2010

Faithful Place

Faithful Place: Tana French: I've read all three of Tana French's novels, and while In the Woods and The Likeness were excellent, Faithful Place is French's best novel yet. The characters, Frank Mackey and his dysfunctional family (most of whom he has not seen in over twenty years until a mystery from his past draws him back to his old neighborhood) are interesting and compelling. I was drawn into the story practically from the opening pages, and, although I had to put it down for such things as sleep, I really just wanted to keep on reading until I finished. One of French's strength as a novelist is in portraying characters to whom it's easy to relate, even if you don't always agree with their actions. Frank, for instance, can be aggravating -- it does seem, as one of his brothers says, that he sees himself as better than the rest of his family and above the rules. Even his choice of work as a cop -- in Undercover where it's often necessary to break the rules -- seems to bear this out. Despite Frank's flaws, he is a character I wanted to like and his poignant backstory helps provide me with reasons to like him. My only quibble with this novel is that I knew WAY too early who the villain was. Despite that, I loved this novel and I look forward eagerly to French's new novel (I hope she's working on one right now!)

5 comments:

Marg said...

I am waiting for this to come in at my library. I am so glad to read that this is your favourite so far. Gives me something really good to look forward to.

Kathy said...

It's excellent. I loved it and hated to leave the world French created in this book.

BabelBabe said...

i liked In the Woods; Likeness, not so much. but you are the second person i trust who has raved about this one - I will get it as soon as I can now.

Kathy said...

I like The Likeness but I loved Faithful Place. I think you will probably like it, bb.

sari said...

I have this on reserve at the library.