kindledspiritsbooks's review against another edition
5.0
There is a huge amount of pleasure to be gained from a good detective novel and I'm always on the lookout for a new series. I've been seeing great reviews of Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad series for a while now and I'm delighted to say that it lives up to the hype. It pulls you in right from the first page with absolutely stunning writing that completely transports the reader to a hazy summer day in a 1980s suburb of Dublin. But the loveliness of the scene belies the grim events about to occur; three pre-teens wander innocently into the woods to play and only one returns, spattered with blood, covered in mysterious scratch marks and with no memory of what has happened to him or his missing friends. This child, Rob, grows up to become a detective working on the eponymous Dublin Murder Squad and he tells almost no one about his own traumatic past. But one day the past comes back for him, as he and his partner are assigned a case where a child has been mysteriously murdered in the very same woods where he lost his friends and there is evidence to suggest the two cases are linked. This book is an absolute rollercoaster and while I have seen some reviewers complaining about finding the ending either too predictable or frustrating, I think they're missing the point. In a well-constructed mystery the reader should have a pretty good idea of whodunnit by the climax of the novel and in a great novel not everything needs to be wrapped up in a neat bow. French has created a portrait of a messy person dealing with a messy situation that defies the conventional tropes of the mystery genre and as a result, transcends it. I will definitely be putting the rest of the Dublin Murder Squad books on my TBR.
kerrisbooks13's review against another edition
4.0
Dark and twisty and you never really know which way it’s going to go. The author makes you care about the characters even if you’re questioning them and their actions at every step. I think the biggest letdown for me was the ending in the fact that you never really find out what happens to Rob’s old friends and it just kind of drops off after that. A huge part of the plot of this book was that his friends disappeared and yet we never get any sort of closure on them. I guess there’s a message there in and of itself but I wanted closure.
rd_pires's review against another edition
2.0
Tana French's writing is brilliant as usual. Her eloquence and ability to draw clearly defined characters are on full display here. The problem is, I didn't like the book.
Without spoiling anything, the main character is infuriating, and I think that is the crux of the issue. Many, many times I wanted to just leave this book behind because of how maddeningly inept and incompetent he is. The story moved too slowly to keep me interested in spite of this, and the only reason I finished the book is the fact that I cannot leave books unfinished. By the end, I was so disgusted by the whole thing that I think, if I hadn't read some of the other Dublin Murder Squad books first, I've have sworn off Tana French completely.
Interestingly enough, I believe he is supposed to be this way. I think we are supposed to completely hate him and the book. That's a unique quality to imbue in your work. Why would you want your readers to never come back to your writing? I'm not sure. But I'm glad this wasn't the first in the franchise I read.
Without spoiling anything, the main character is infuriating, and I think that is the crux of the issue. Many, many times I wanted to just leave this book behind because of how maddeningly inept and incompetent he is. The story moved too slowly to keep me interested in spite of this, and the only reason I finished the book is the fact that I cannot leave books unfinished. By the end, I was so disgusted by the whole thing that I think, if I hadn't read some of the other Dublin Murder Squad books first, I've have sworn off Tana French completely.
Interestingly enough, I believe he is supposed to be this way. I think we are supposed to completely hate him and the book. That's a unique quality to imbue in your work. Why would you want your readers to never come back to your writing? I'm not sure. But I'm glad this wasn't the first in the franchise I read.
gemmabenglish's review against another edition
5.0
listen. i first checked this book out from the library in 2015 and read it in one day. four years later i bought it and read it again only to loan it to a coworker and despite numerous attempts on my part was never able to get it back. four years later i borrow it from libby and devour it a third time. i’ve only just finished. i’m writing this at 1:20am. that is to say. this book won’t leave me be. i rated it three stars in 2015 it’s a lie it might be one of my favorite books i think about it all the time. it is not a perfect book but by god does it do something to me. and actually that’s rare. it’s also a tragedy which is maybe why it haunts me. hard to say. i can see it as a book that ppl would throw at the wall and never want to see again. i am on the other hand i think trapped in a cycle where i’ll reread it every four years until i die. alas.
offbalance80's review against another edition
5.0
A fantastic story that kept me guessing until the very end (a rarity for mystery novels). Can't get into too much without spoilers, but I'm in for the long haul with this series, no question.
perfectsham's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
0.25
This book has the most unlikeable, POS main character in any book I've ever read. He's so unbelievably self aware and such a huge jerk, you think surely the author must be making a point, but no, he's just a dickhead and the fact that her tragic self insert, manic pixie dream girl detective character moons over this utter cretin the entire book while the engage in the most cringeworthy juvenile "platonic" relationship, is awful beyond belief. I started enjoying this book when bad things started happening to him. By the end of the book, I truly wished he'd been murdered with his friends in the woods.
jawjuhh's review against another edition
4.25
Tana French is so good. Her writing makes me so nostalgic for things I’ve never experienced. Just randomly dropping the most gorgeous sentences in out of nowhere. I enjoyed the central mystery though did feel at times it got lost in exploring too many strands- though perhaps in an attempt to truly immerse you in what the investigative experience must be like. For once I clocked the murderer early on.
athenany's review against another edition
3.0
4 stars for the beginning, 3 for the middle. 1 for the end. As others have said, the mystery of what happened to the main character and his friends is unresolved. And not in a satisfying way where there are theories but also ambiguities. This is just straight up not solved. And without the specter of that mystery, the current-day murder is just kind of run of the mill. Sad and tragic but not spooky.