392. Faithful Place
Rating: ☆☆☆☆
Recommended by:
Author: Tana French
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Crime, Foreign
416 pages, published July 13, 2010
Reading Format: Audio Book
Summary
In 1985, 19 year old Frank Mackey was from a dysfunctional family living in a poor part of Dublin in small flat named Faithful Place. He and his girl, Rosie Daly, were all set to run away to London together, get married, get good jobs, and break away from the despair of their lives in Ireland. However, on the winter night when they were supposed to leave, Rosie didn’t show. Frank assumed that she’d given him the brush-off and gone to London on her own. Frank left Faithful Place and never went home again. 22 years later, Rosie’s suitcase shows up behind a fireplace in a derelict house on Faithful Place. Frank, now a Detective on Dublin’s Murder Squad is going home again where he must figure out what happened to Rosie and deal with his family demons.
Quotes
“My father told me once that the most important thing every man should know is what he would die for.”
“I’ve always loved strong women, which is lucky for me because once you’re over about twenty-five there is no other kind. Women blow my mind. The stuff that routinely gets done to them would make most men curl up and die, but women turn to steel and keep on coming. Any man who claims he’s not into strong women is fooling himself mindless; he’s into strong women who know how to pout prettily and put on baby voices, and who will end up keeping his balls in her makeup bags.”
“Her forehead was a maze of anxious little grooves, from a lifetime of wondering about whether everyone within range was OK.”
“I listen to the things people want out of love these days and they blow my mind. I go to the pub with the boys from the squad and listen while they explain, with minute precision, exactly what shape a woman should be, what bits she should shave how, what acts she should perform on which date and what she should always or never do or say or want; I eavesdrop on women in cafes while they reel off lists of which jobs a man is allowed, which cars, which labels, which flowers and restaurants and gemstones get the stamp of approval, and I want to shout, Are you people out of your tiny minds?”
“We had no one else to learn this from- none of our parents were shining examples of relationship success- so we learned this from each other: when someone you love needs you to, you can get a hold of your five-alarm temper, get a hold of the shapeless things that scare you senseless, act like an adult instead of the Cro-Magnon teenager you are, you can do a million things you never saw coming.”
“You can be a rich scumbag just as easily as a poor scumbag, or you can be a decent human being either way. Money’s got nothing to do with it. It’s nice to have, but it’s not what makes you who you are.”
“Privately, I consider religion to be a load of bollocks, but when you have a sobbing five year old wanting to know what happened to her hamster, you develop an instant belief in anything that dissolves some of the heartbreak off her face.”
My Take
Having previously read and thoroughly enjoyed The Witch Elm, In the Woods, and The Likeness by the brilliant Irish writer Tana French, I was highly anticipating Faithful Place (the third book in Dublin Murder Squad series). It did not disappoint. French brings you into the time, place and motivations of her characters so completely that I felt like I was right there with them. Additionally, her insight into the human condition adds a depth and richness that keep her books in your psyche long after you are finished reading them.
