Faithful Place by Tana French

So the first Tana French book I read was In the Woods and I'm kind of glad that I read that one first, because it was so much better than this novel. 

This novel focuses on Frank Mackey, an undercover detective in Dublin's police force. We learn quite early on that Frank's first love, Rosie Daly, failed to meet him when they were 19 (they were planning to elope) and Frank believes that she has crossed the chanel to England without him.  Ever since then, he hopes that Rosie or her family will contact him to let him know how she is doing, but that doesn't happen. Faithful place is the neighborhood that Frank grew up in and left at 19. Twenty two years later, he opts to return to the neighborhood when he receives a phone call from his baby sister Jackie. Jackie told Frank that a suitcase was found in a derelict house on the street and that it appears that it belonged to Rosie. So begins this novel and how Frank must investigate and discover what happened to his dear Rosie twenty two years before.

While Tana French's prose and the conversation between her characters was a joy to read, I grew tired of this novel really quickly. Her main character was way too similar to her main character in the previous novel that I read.  In fact, they were the same exact characters - native sons turned police officers/guards who return to the places where they grew up in order to solve some awful crime that occurred there when they were young. In that sense, it was boring and repetitive. I did and do enjoy the glimpses that she provides into contemporary Irish society, so if you're interested in that, then definitely pick up this novel, but other than that I would pass.

Book 3/100 for 2011