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It's tough being a repressed middle-class British vampire. Review to follow soon I hope.
Okay! A bit OTT for me.
I am more of characterisation, scene-setting, etc type - this is far too plot-driven with a far too convoluted yet obvious solution to the mystery. 2.5 stars rounded up.
I am more of characterisation, scene-setting, etc type - this is far too plot-driven with a far too convoluted yet obvious solution to the mystery. 2.5 stars rounded up.
Bloody hell I forget how much I enjoy reading the Dublin Murder Squad series and you know what ! I think this is my favourite to date.
I loved the relationship of the two detectives especially “Scorcher Kennedy “ our main protagonist mentoring the junior cop. I agonized over what really happened in the murder house and obessesed over the inner dynamics of the family. The casual but yet professional approach that the Gardai took with the investigation rang true. The motive for the murders while seemingly bizarre is actually really close to the apparent motive in a real-life case in Dublin that I am aware of - life is stranger than fiction! And be Jaysus isn’t Scorcher quite the poet and romantic who ever would have guessed it from the previous book!
Recommended to those who have already read the previous three books folks but be warned this is beautiful but bleak!
I loved the relationship of the two detectives especially “Scorcher Kennedy “ our main protagonist mentoring the junior cop. I agonized over what really happened in the murder house and obessesed over the inner dynamics of the family. The casual but yet professional approach that the Gardai took with the investigation rang true. The motive for the murders while seemingly bizarre is actually really close to the apparent motive in a real-life case in Dublin that I am aware of - life is stranger than fiction! And be Jaysus isn’t Scorcher quite the poet and romantic who ever would have guessed it from the previous book!
Recommended to those who have already read the previous three books folks but be warned this is beautiful but bleak!
It would be rare that I read a book twice in the same year but when I hear book 5 includes Stephan Moran and Holly Mackey from Faithful Place I thought why not reread? I can then also take a fresh look out at the Frank Mackey versus Scorcher Kennedy dynamic from Franks point of view again. I mean in one book Scorcher is a real middle-class egotistic pile of shite and in the other Frank is a cheating working-class scumbag who wrecked Kennedy’s career. Which is true?
And that is what is so intriguing about these books finding out that when the perspective switches to a minor character, in a previous book, that what was true is still true but has been misinterpreted and is not the whole story. So I guess in Police speak it is the truth just not the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
So as to the review? I seem to have skipped it last May but my notes say.
"Rather enjoying what is quintessentially a family drama set in the Dublin Liberties with an odd gruesome murder.”
And you know that sums it up in just one sentence.
Fundamentally Tana French writes people, in this case, the working-class family and community of the contemporary and 1980’s Liberties Dublin. The crimes arise out of the normal ugliness of the human condition and the Gardaí/police are just as flawed as the people they are investigating.
And that is what is so intriguing about these books finding out that when the perspective switches to a minor character, in a previous book, that what was true is still true but has been misinterpreted and is not the whole story. So I guess in Police speak it is the truth just not the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
So as to the review? I seem to have skipped it last May but my notes say.
"Rather enjoying what is quintessentially a family drama set in the Dublin Liberties with an odd gruesome murder.”
And you know that sums it up in just one sentence.
Fundamentally Tana French writes people, in this case, the working-class family and community of the contemporary and 1980’s Liberties Dublin. The crimes arise out of the normal ugliness of the human condition and the Gardaí/police are just as flawed as the people they are investigating.
