Tags
Book Review, Crime Fiction, Dublin, Faithful Place, Ireland, Irish Fiction, Psychological Thriller, Tana French
Tragedies of epic, archetypical themes.
So, with Faithful Place, the third book in Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad series, I finally reach the end of a fairly concentrated immersion in matters murky, Dublin, French style. I started out of order, reading her two latest books, Broken Harbour and The Secret Place, following strong recommendations by a couple of savvy bloggers, Fleur In Her World and Cleopatra Loves Books, got immediately hooked, and then embarked on 1-3
I think the fact that I read my first Tana French, Broken Harbour, 6 weeks ago, and finished this one last week, probably says much more about French’s compulsive, interesting, quality writing than this particular review can. I did read other books as well in that period, mainly because, however brilliant a writer is, (in fact, particularly if they are brilliant!) I don’t think a solo immersion is useful – it can get a bit like only eating one kind of food. However delicious, the palate gets jaded, and other sustenance, other nutrients are required, both for variety and to sustain appreciation for that favourite.
Even so, as I started each new French, I was wondering ‘have I overdone it, will I be too immured into her style, her tricks, her vision, so that I get a ‘oh, here we go again’. Well, bravo, Tana French, because I didn’t.
Now that’s not to say I didn’t guess, fairly early on, the who-dunnit of Faithful Place – French has a clearly short list of potential perps, and drops some clues early on, so we know early on who both the herrings, and the do-er of dastardly-deeds might be. But the person who did it is never the major focus of French’s writing. She is a writer of time, of place, of society, and, above all, the close and frequently (in her novels at least) dysfunctional nature of family. Out of particular families, in the time and place of their culture, the happenings arise.
Reading all 5 books in a short time scale, what I got, increasingly, was a kind of Greek Tragedy, the chorus is given by the ‘Dublin Murder Squad’ – except, that in each book, a spotlight shifts, bringing different members of that chorus, different detectives and their side-kicks and team partners, out from the background, into centre stage, which they then share with the particular crime being investigated. And sometimes, as with this book, the detective and the particular crime have uncomfortably close associations.
Each of her books make one detective centre stage, but a central character in one will crop up as a not-quite-peripheral, or even as a major minor player in another.
But this book has a particularly challenging protagonist/instigator-and-victim of fate. We met Frank Mackey as a powerful, charismatic, dynamic figure in The Likeness. Mackey heads up Undercover Operations. We don’t know too much about his past, but he is hugely influential in The Likeness. And he will appear again as a slippery, influential player in The Secret Place, attractive and manipulative by turns. In those two novels, the reader sees pretty well only Mackey’s mask.
In this book, he is slap bang in the centre, and the source of his complex and damaged personality, and how that damage is used both positively and in a retrograde way, comes clear. He is like some kind of scorpion figure. Scorpions (well, female scorpions) are fiercely protective of their families – and the family, in this context, may spread far wider than blood family. But, as all know, their sting is deadly, and a wide berth should be kept!
Mackey is certainly not an attractive figure here. The book is told in his voice, and that voice is generally brutal, unforgiving, self serving. What redeems him is his love for his precocious daughter, Holly. And his love for his ex-wife, Olivia, though it is largely Mackey’s driven, controlling, self-protective angry personality which made Olivia end the marriage.
Mackey came from a very dysfunctional family indeed. Father an alcoholic, unskilled, though with a huge potential which was never realised, due to neighbourhood enmities going back a generation; mother a manipulating fearful and aggressive mammy martyr. And the 5 children, Carmel, Shay, Frank, Kevin, Jackie, the battleground on which the parental war was played out.
One of my da’s tragedies was always the fact that he was bright enough to understand just how comprehensively he had shat all over his life. He would have been a lot better off thick as a plank
Frank Mackey, back in his teenage years, had a secret first love, Rosie Daly. Theirs was a Romeo and Juliet affair as the Daly and Mackey fathers were sworn enemies. Frank and Rosie were deep in the planning of elopement and escape to England, but the night they had set for this to happen, Rosie didn’t show, and left a note for Frank, saying that she was going to England and was sorry to hurt him. This devastating blow to his idealistic dreams not only damaged, for life, his ability to trust, be intimate and open with anyone, but also meant that he also ran away from his own home, that night. He had after all, planned to do this with Rosie, now he did it alone. Twenty two years later he is still estranged from his family who never forgave him for leaving. The enmity between the Mackeys and the Dalys has also grown, as the Daly family had been convinced, given that both Frank and Rosie vanished on the same night, that they had gone together, and that somehow Frank must have abandoned Rosie in England, and returned to build a better life for himself as a member of the Garda. The community don’t have much liking for the Garda.
But now, twenty two years later, events happen which fling open all the doors revealing community cupboards full to bursting with skeletons.
It took me a little longer to surrender to this book than most of the others – and in the main it is because of the challenges of an unlikeable central character. French manages this brilliantly, but Frank’s heat, and rage are uncomfortable to be with. But for sure you are made to fully understand and engage with why Frank’s aggression, despair and anger are as they are – and he is also a man who struggles and positively tries to engage with his shadows.
And it also has to be said that Mackey’s dark wit keeps the reader going. His is an unkind humour, but he is amusing
A handful of ten-year-olds with underprivileged hair and no eyebrows were slouched on a wall, scoping out the cars and thinking wire hangers. All I needed was to come back and find that suitcase gone. I leaned my arse on the boot, labelled my Fingerprint Fifi envelopes, had a smoke and stared our country’s future out of it until the situation was clear all round and they (expletive deleted meaning ‘went away’) …to vandalise someone who wouldn’t come looking for them
Gaby Gerster—Laif/Redux
Lady Fancifull 
I’m really enjoying your reviews of Tana French and you’ve definitely convinced me! I looked for her books in my favourite charity bookshop recently but no luck so far – I will persevere 🙂
Libraries? Thank you Madam Bibi. Of course now I’ve finished I shall be crossly waiting for her to get her 6th published. There seems no news of this as an impending event. I hope she doesn’t go all Donna Tartt on me and wait 20 years!
Haha! I’m a member of 5 libraries – why didn’t that occur to me?? Fingers crossed for no Donna Tartt-like behaviour!
Oh you’re sure to find a French or two..and it really isn’t problematic reading out of order
I’ve never really been able to binge read an author unless it’s all re-reads. I’m always intrigued by the way you read all the way through an author’s work – it’s something I always say I’ll do, but never do. In fact, doing the reviews from the last five years thing has horrified me because nearly every review ends with “I’ll certainly be checking out his/her previous books” and I almost never have. Oh well! One day I’ll read Ms French’s first, and I should have got through them all by around 2030…
Well if a writer gets enough high fives and ticks from me of course I want to spend more time with them. So it seems the sensible thing to do. But I have been particularly impressed with Tana French that she survived a quite intensive immersion read, without me thinking ‘same old, same old,’ In fact, the hard work was avoiding JUST reading all through her books without pausing for breaks with someone else.
Another well presented review that will cost me money in the end as I begin my adventure with Tana French, buying, using a library card, whatever it takes. Your reviews do that to me. I must add, again, how great your blog is..always!
Thank you, as ever, Stepheny for your kind words. But the pleasure will be yours too, with Tana French, and I really feel I gained even more appreciation from reading her entire canon so quickly
I’ve been reluctant to binge read because of the fear I lose the enjoyment through familiarity. Good to know this author didn’t give yiu that problem.
Well yes. I must admit I’ve never done such an intensive with any author before, in terms of the time scale. And its all leaving me increasingly impressed with Tana French!
I think I’ll file this one for later when I need to write about a particularly distasteful man. Thank you.
Great blog, Lady. I’ve bookmarked it and will look for your new posts arriving in my in box. I’ve liked some of Tana French, and disliked others. Not with much passion, in either case. I couldn’t get into her latest book, “The Secret Place”, probably because I wasn’t interested in teen age girls.
The last series I “binged” on was the ones were the Louise Penny “Inspector Gamanche” series, but was very, very disappointed with her last one. And evidently I wasn’t the only one who thought it was terrible. She has a new one coming out in August and I’m interested to see whether she’s “righted” the series or if this one will be bad, too.
Oh thanks for those kind words Jill – and nice to see you here! We do get around and meet all over the place don’t we, ain’t ‘virtual’ fun!
You bet!