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What Members Thought
I have only myself to blame for this one. I happened to see a quote from something French wrote on a GR friend's profile, and at the time it struck me as so clever and profound that I determined to read something by French and, being the methodical SOB that I am, I started at her very first book.
This started slow and then put on the brakes. The book is 485 pages long and I endured about 408 pages of disjointed investigations and improbable interrogations before the story got mildly interesting. ...more
This started slow and then put on the brakes. The book is 485 pages long and I endured about 408 pages of disjointed investigations and improbable interrogations before the story got mildly interesting. ...more
As a book, this was really a fantastic reading experience for me, but as a mystery, it had a few flaws, so it didn't quite make 5 stars.
The plot: A little girl is found murdered at an archaeological dig outside a small Dublin suburb, and Detectives Rob Ryan and Cassie Maddox catch the case.
Things I loved:
The feel of this story and these characters is so rich and complex and real, so unlike most other mysteries. It reminded me a bit of The Chalk Circle Man, which also has similarly rich and compl ...more
The plot: A little girl is found murdered at an archaeological dig outside a small Dublin suburb, and Detectives Rob Ryan and Cassie Maddox catch the case.
Things I loved:
The feel of this story and these characters is so rich and complex and real, so unlike most other mysteries. It reminded me a bit of The Chalk Circle Man, which also has similarly rich and compl ...more
This was definitely not your average mystery, and after the last 10 or so novels I've read being very average mainstream/"literary" fiction it was about time I read something that stands out. I think I have a new favorite detective...
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I was so looking forward to this book. Debated with myself whether or not to pick it up for a couple of months before I gave in and bought it (as I already have over 400 books on my TBR shelf, I'm at least trying to finish most of them before buying more). It started strong, looked to be a good psychological thriller, but unfortunately it did not deliver. I finished it, but I have to admit that I ended up skipping around a bit towards the end. I was expecting more from this book. I liked the cha
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This book had a promising start to a good mystery. But by the end of it, I couldn't stand the main character anymore. He made such a mess of things. There were 2 parts to the story, but only one part of it got resolved in the end. Disappointing.
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French's writing is wonderfully descriptive, poetic and captivating. The story is equal parts thrilling, suspenseful and gripping.
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So, I liked this book a lot until the very end. The last quarter of the novel I was so disappointed in Rob's actions, that i couldn't completely enjoy the solving of the case. On the other hand, I supose Rob's actions were realistic -- we don't always handle ourselves well and sometimes we ruin things we've worked hard to build for ourseleves. Even with the disappointment I felt I still gave it 4 stars :)
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A fantastic debut by Tana French, this psychological thriller is atmospheric (Irish woods! stark police interrogation rooms!) and fast-paced. Rob Ryan, the protagonist and first-person narrator, is drawn into a spiral of (view spoiler) as he investigates a murder that took place at the same spot where he himself had been involved in the disappearance of two young children many years ago.
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This book was so dreadfully boring! I read it for an online book club. I decided to read it because the premise sounds interesting, but the story was so slow and un-thrillerish at all! I expected a lot more from this than what I got.
3.5 stars because I enjoyed the book and thought about it when I wasn't reading it, but I predicted the killer(s) very early on.
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May 04, 2008
Katy
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
mystery-and-thriller
Very nicely written, complicated mystery with real characters and plotting.
Dec 27, 2010
Jayme Pendergraft
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
2011,
around-the-world-in-80-books
