Tana French published this book in 2007 as the first book in the Dublin Murder Squad series. It appears to be her first published novel. I have found that writing is often strange in first novels, so having been introduced to her through The Searcher which she published in 2020, I wanted to see how she had begun. And this was quite a beginning.
French wrote the book in the first person voice of the male narrator, who is a Dublin murder detective whose name varies between Rob Ryan and Adam Ryan. He tells the reader, “What I am telling you, before you begin my story, is this - two things: I crave truth. And I lie.”
There are two primary story lines: the first is of three young people playing in the summer sun who take off into the woods next to their housing development outside of Dublin, as they have done many times before. Only this time two of them disappear, and the third one (who turns out to be Adam Ryan) is found clutching a tree with someone else’s blood in his shoes. The second story line is Rob (Adam) returning to the housing development ten years later to investigate the murder of a young girl who is found on top of an ancient sacrificial stone. A highway is about to be built through the ancient site and some people don’t want that to happen.
There are lots of threads of emotional entanglements and distress. Adam has changed his name to Rob in order to avoid curious questions about the events ten years earlier.
Tana French’s writing is as rich as a death-by-chocolate cake. The psychological aspects of this book are disturbing, and the pace seemed slow as lead after lead came to a dead end. But by the time I finished the book, I understood it had to be written the way it was written in order to build the troubled natures of the characters. It clearly fits into the police mystery/psychological genres, and I will keep it on my reference shelf just for the way French handles the suspect interviews.
I will also keep it on my reference shelf for the truly most evil character I have ever met in a work of fiction. Another reviewer compared this book to Steinbeck’s East of Eden, which had also occurred to me as I was reading it. I wonder if Tana French had to turn away from that character who seems a bit thinly developed compared to others in the novel. To truly develop that character would have meant getting inside it and truly seeing the world through its eyes. (I am avoiding the defining the gender of the character to avoid spoiling the story.)
Getting inside the head of a truly evil character is scary as hell.
This is not a quick read, but this is another five star novel from Tana French.