Faithful Place
By Tana French
(Blogger Note: This review was previously published in "LAMLight," the physician newsletter of the Lynchburg Academy of Medicine.)
Forty pages into this book I assumed this would be my favorite of the 2010 Edgar Nominees. The book is set in Dublin and features the
mother of all dysfunctional Irish families.
The main character is an undercover detective named Frank Mackey. His father is an alcoholic (surprise!) and
abusive. His mother is the typical Irish
mother who is a master at sending her children on guilt trips. Frank has an older and younger brother and
sister. The story opens with nineteen
year old Frank waiting for his girlfriend Rosie Daly. Their plan is to escape their lower class
life and neighborhood by running away to London. The only problem is that Rosie never shows
up. Frank finds part of a note Rosie
wrote implying that she was taking off for London on her own. Young Frank leaves Faithful Place behind
also, relocating in Dublin and becoming a well-respected undercover police
officer. He marries, has a daughter,
becomes divorced and never attempts to contact his parents or is siblings.
Twenty two years later Rosie’s suitcase is found in an
abandoned home on Faithful Place. A
search of the basement finds the remains of a young woman which is eventually
identified as Rosie Daly. The ultimate
“cold case” becomes Frank’s obsession, despite being warned by superiors to
stay away from the investigation.
The plot segues from the present day back to the events leading up to
Frank and Rosie’s ill-fated rendezvous twenty two years previous. Frank also reluctantly
reacquaints himself with his estranged family . The list of suspects begins to narrow when
Frank’s younger brother Kevin apparently jumps from an upper story window in
the same abandoned house where Rosie’s body was found. The police find a tidy explanation for both
deaths: Kevin was her killer and took
his own life in remorse. Frank, however,
is not buying any of it.
As Frank digs into his past, he finds even more
“skeletons”. He narrows the field of
suspects down to the unthinkable – other members of his own family.
This book is extremely well written. It could, however, have used a bit of editing. There is one whole chapter where Frank tries
to explain death to his nine year old daughter which seemed unnecessary. The perpetrator of the crimes is fairly
obvious early on, but the way the plot resolves at the conclusion is very
clever. I thoroughly enjoyed Faithful Place.
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