Faithful Place - Tana French

Frank Mackey, head of undercover in Dublin was nineteen, growing up poor in Dublin's inner city in 1985 when he found a way to escape the crammed family flat on Faithful Place. He and Rosie Daly were all ready to run away to London, but when he waited for her to come to meet him, the night passed and she did not show up.  He did not go looking for her, he assumed she changed her mind and then he walked away - turning his back on the neighborhood and moving on to become a detective and choosing to avoid family and neighborhood.  


But it is difficult to escape your past and when a suitcase that belonged to Rosie is found stashed in the chimney of a fireplace Frank is drawn back in to do the search he should have done 22 years ago.  The result is the corpse of Rosie and a web that draws in Frank, his daughter from his divorce, a brother who should have been sheltered and befriended and the results of a murder that entwines too much personal anguish.


This is as much a study in the impact that one drunken, wife beating, vicious "da" can have on a family and the resulting generations as it is a murder mystery.  This is a family that holds together despite all odds, except for Frances who has left once and cannot wait to get away again.  

His sisters and most of his brothers want to be connected to Frances, but they also fear him, fear what he will do to upset the delicate balance and swirl around the dramatic events like plankton - unable to move out of the way, helpless to change the flow.


Then Frances' ex and his sister introduce his daughter to the family, something Frances is angry about and his "mammy" - as tough and crusty as you can get after fending off her violent and still living in the house alcoholic husband - takes to Holly and Holly is delighted to meet this lost family.  The tensions mount as father and daughter try to understand each others angst and as Frances moves through the tensions of the family to find the true killer.

The issue is tougher because the murder squad finds an easy solution and sells it so that it can close the case and move on.  Frances takes advantage of a rookie member of the squad to get insights and then burns him (later he makes up for it) and the case is one that is outside the squad since it is a closed case.

So sit back, take a breathe and find out why you are curious about this family.  Enjoy the rich Irish - Dublin language.  Wonder why Frances is the hero of a series of books - what to we like about him - my answer is nothing, but I find him fascinating in his frustrating quirks.