'Faithful Place' by Tana French

Once upon a time I loved reading thrillers. Preferably series, a new case every book, developing story lines of the detectives involved. Every book filled with diverse characters, gripping storyline with lots of twists and turns. PD James - her books did wonders for my vocabulary; her writing is so dense I had to look up every word I didn’t know to get the story… - and Elizabeth George are favourites of the “don’t try to talk to me before I’ve finished the book…” kind of books.
But then came Wallander - always depressed. Jo Nesbo - his crimes so brutal, the victims and their gruesome death described in bloody detail. Patricia Cornwell described dissections too well for me to keep on reading her books. Indeed, I began to question why, oh why am I so fascinated by murders?

Tana French’s ‘Faithful place’ got me hooked on thrillers all over again. The story is a portrait of a dysfunctional family and a murder mystery. It’s about how the five offspring of an alcoholic father and manipulative mother grow into adulthood.

Frank, the main character, left as a teenager 22 years ago and kept a safe distance from the family, only in rare contact with one sister. He’s delightfully awful. He has no desire to be nice, and seems to relish in pissing people off, irrespective if he likes them or not. Only exception his much loved daughter Holly.

Frank only returns into the family because he owes it to his long lost, now found murdered teenage sweetheart. He’s less than welcome in the family - who resents him for his leaving, for being a cop, for breaking the family rules. His superiors want him far away from the case; the police would happily close the case as solved, they don’t really care if the dead man was the killer. Frank, who knows the dynamics of the place and the people within better than any of the cops involved in solving the place, plods on in his own rough, manipulative, bullying way. It's heart breaking to follow the story.

Well written. Great characters. Absolutely non-pc, and thoroughly human. The devastating effects of poverty, substance abuse and their long lasting effects on every page. I picked up two more Tana French books from the library...