** spoiler alert ** This gets 4 stars for being not only quite well written, but completely page turning. It's like an Irish Law and Order SVU but with some really excellent prose. Tana French is indeed a very good writer, I commend her on this debut novel and I would most definitely read her next book, when she writes it.

That being said, (SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS!!!), I guessed who was responsible for the murder pretty early on. This is pretty routine for me (no, I would never succeed at having a career as a detective or pathologist or anything like that), but with a few minor exceptions (example - 'Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn') I tend to guess these things right away because I read a lot of mysteries and I watch a lot of cop shows and the writers all tend to follow the same pattern, which is not rocket science.

I did, however, think French gave a few too many clues and I found myself yelling at Detective Ryan for being so dim witted and gullible not to catch on. Then I was angry on page 409 when Ryan basically assumes the reader is as dense as he is. Very condescending. I hate when film and books underestimate the reader/viewer. Once I had guessed the killer, I avidly read page after page to see if I was right but more importantly I read this book so eagerly because Ryan seemed like such a sketchy character that I was waiting to see if he was responsible for the disappearance of Peter and Jamie. Alas, *that* case was left unsolved. Maybe French will write a sequel, and we'll finally get an answer to that cold case.

This book would make a fantastic film. I'm sure it's already being optioned as I type this :)