Broken Harbor, #4 in the Dublin Murder Squad series. 4 stars, mystery, 450 pages, 2012

This story begins with a young family murdered in their home. Well there was one survivor, but it wasn’t either of the young kids. This was an especially hard one and when I finished it on Mother’s Day it felt especially wrong.

Families can look glossy on the surface, but once you rub a bit of that shine off there’s usually something more interesting going on and in this case it was deadly. Bizarre revelations, old friends, and financial instability make the mystery of this family a tough one. This hasn’t been my favorite of the series, but they’re all so good that it didn’t need to be to be good.

The Secret Place, #5 in the Dublin Murder Squad series, 4/5 stars, 452 pages, 2014

You don’t need to read these books in order, but I’d recommend it if you can. My favorite of the series so far, Faithful Place, featured Detective Frank Mackey and he and his daughter make another appearance here. Stephen Moran is also back.

This one takes place at a boarding school for girls. A year after a boy from a neighboring school was murdered on school grounds the detectives have a new lead and it comes from inside the school. Oh, to be amongst all of that teen angst and those friendship circles again!

The book spans one day of investigation, but it goes into the past investigation and events in depth. I wasn’t crazy about it at first, boarding school stories are iffy for me, but it grew on me and Frank Mackey appeared at just the right time to reel me in for the somewaht surprising finish.

Tana French is such a talented writer! Both books had a paranormal element that mostly worked, even if I think it could have been avoided altogether in The Secret Place and been fine, or even better.

Have you read any of this series? I love the Ireland setting.