The Dublin Murder Squad is a detective procedural set in Dublin, Ireland. I’m such a stickler for reading book in a series in the correct order. I read the first of the series and then just read them when they showed up at the library book sale. I loved all of the books individually, but it would have been so much better if I’d read them in order.
Give me a murder and some police squad drama both with that Irish accent and I’m sold. Some of the detectives show up in more than one book, which is why I recommend reading them in order since the timeline matters.
I haven’t read any of Tana’s standalones, but now that I’m done with this series I will be. There are only six of these and they are perfect for some binge reading.
In the Woods. Ryan narrates the book with humor and enough foreshadowing to keep you reading well past bedtime (at least it did for me). He has his problems. At the best of times he’s cool and fun, at the worst he’s a real piece of work who I wanted to pour a beer on. He’s best friends with his partner, Cassie, and their brother-sister relationship was one to be envied, by their fellow detectives and the reader. I loved Cassie. Loved her more than Rob, especially by the end.
The old mystery of what happens to Rob as a child and the new case of who killed little Katy have a few pieces of connecting evidence and Rob is stuck in the middle of his own hell, one he stepped into willingly. The mystery was very good, if not totally surprising. I loved the characters and the history of the village. French did an excellent job of making me feel right at home in Dublin. Now I need to visit!
I really, really liked this one. Yes, by the end I was fairly disgusted with Rob, but I am so looking forward to reading the next of this series. I know that a lot of bloggers were upset by the loose ends but I was okay with it. But that could have been because I was expecting it, who knows?
The Likeness. Cassie from In the Woods has started dating a fellow detective and things are going well, but she can’t resist the call to the murder squad when an undercover case seems tailor made for her. There’s a murdered young woman who looks just like Cassie and Mackey convinces her to go and live with the clan-like circle of friends at their house and try to pass herself off as the dead girl. Yeah, it’s a little much, but just go with it. Cassie becomes a little too entrenched and too comfortable.
This wasn’t my favorite, mainly because of how much of a stretch it was, but it was still a fascinating look at a group or friends looking for family.
Faithful Place. This was the third book in the Dublin Murder Squad series, but I’d only read the first and didn’t feel like I missed anything, even though the main character, Frank, first appeared in #2. The complex characters, historic Dublin setting, and slow build mystery, all made this a page-turner.
Frank, an undercover cop from a neighborhood who viewed him as a turncoat because of it, had never come to grips with the disappearance of his first love. He viewed his family as poison and went on to marry and have a daughter and kept them as far away from the madness as possible. But when his first love’s old suitcase is found, he must head back home and face the music.
So, so good. I loved Frank for all his flaws and getting to understand him in relation to where he grew up, which felt like a character of its own. The resolution was both real and heartbreaking. I love gritty thrillers like this. Highly recommend!
Broken Harbor. 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.
The Secret Place. 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.
The Trespasser. Stephen Moran and Antoinette Conway are back from the last book and the pressure in on. They are given a murder case and told it is a domestic slam dunk. But both are new and wary. When they dig a little deeper, it’s going to make them even less popular in the squad room. I thought one of the storylines at the very end was a fitting way to finish off the series without too much fanfare. I wish there were more!
Have you read this series?
The others on my Top 100 Book Series.
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