The Secret Place by Tana French -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

The Secret Place by Tana French

Thank you for joining me for Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you are not reading it right now.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

She came looking for me.

-- from The Secret Place by Tana French. That's sure an enigmatic opening sentence. It could go about anywhere after that. 

The Secret Place is the fifth of six mystery books in Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad series. In a twist from a typical series, there is no one specific protagonist. The main detective in each book is a different detective from the homicide department in Dublin. 

I'm determined to finish the six books. But I admit it has been more of a chore than I anticipated. French's books, and this series in particular, are incredibly popular. They just do not work for me. The first four bothered me because each story was based on an enormous coincidence that were hard to swallow. In three of them, the lead detective had a personal connection to the crime that, inexplicably, he fails to disclose. In one, the female detective is sent in undercover because she looks EXACTLY like the murder victim. They keep the murder quiet and send the detective to live with the victim's former housemates. Yeah, right. 

The fourth one, Broken Harbor, irritated me so much, I almost gave up on the series for good. It is massively long and full of suspense, but the detective never does any detecting. It goes along for over 450 pages without any basic forensic work before the big resolution based on . . . you guessed it . . . basic forensic work! All the time with the lead detective hiding the fact that his sister is involved. 

It's been three years since I read Broken Harbor because I couldn't face another book that made me want to throw it across the room. But I'm a completist and The Secret Place has been hogging space on my TBR shelf for too long. So I am going to read this one and the last one in the series and wrap this up. The good news is The Secret Place does not involve an unbelievable coincidence. The bad news is that it involves teenagers after a murder at a girls' boarding school. Another of my unpopular opinions is that I do not like books about teenagers. I just can't win with Tana French.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

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THE FRIDAY 56

The Friday 56 is a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings. The idea is to share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of your featured book. If you are reading an ebook or audiobook, find your teaser from the 56% mark.

Freda at Freda's Voice started and hosted The Friday 56 for a long, long time. She is taking a break and Anne at My Head is Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. Please visit Anne's blog and link to your Friday 56 post.

MY FRIDAY 56

-- from The Secret Place:

"Basically, there was no reason anyone would want to kill Chris Harper. Good kid, by all accounts."

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

A year ago a boy was found murdered at a girlsʼ boarding school, and the case was never solved. Detective Stephen Moran has been waiting for his chance to join Dublin’s Murder Squad when sixteen-year-old Holly Mackey arrives in his office with a photo of the boy with the caption: “I KNOW WHO KILLED HIM.” Stephen joins with Detective Antoinette Conway to reopen the case—beneath the watchful eye of Holly’s father, fellow detective Frank Mackey. With the clues leading back to Holly’s close-knit group of friends, to their rival clique, and to the tangle of relationships that bound them all to the murdered boy, the private underworld of teenage girls turns out to be more mysterious and more dangerous than the detectives imagined.