The Secret Place

A Novel

By: Tana French

Narrated by: Stephen Hogan, Lara Hutchinson

Length: 20 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

Listen to the New York Times best seller by Tana French, author of the forthcoming novel The Searcher and “the most important crime novelist to emerge in the past 10 years” (The Washington Post).

A year ago a boy was found murdered at a girlsʼ boarding school, and the case was never solved. Detective Stephen Moran has been waiting for his chance to join Dublin’s Murder Squad when 16-year-old Holly Mackey arrives in his office with a photo of the boy with the caption: “I know who killed him".

Stephen joins with Detective Antoinette Conway to reopen the case - beneath the watchful eye of Holly’s father, fellow detective Frank Mackey. With the clues leading back to Holly’s close-knit group of friends, to their rival clique, and to the tangle of relationships that bound them all to the murdered boy, the private underworld of teenage girls turns out to be more mysterious and more dangerous than the detectives imagined.

©2014 Tana French (P)2014 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"An absolutely mesmerizing read." (Gillian Flynn)

"A book full of giddy, slangy, devious schoolgirls who cannot be trusted about anything, at least not on the first, second, third or fourth rounds of questioning.... Part of this book’s trickiness is its way of letting characters hide the truth behind the smoke screen of language and let both readers and investigators gradually figure out who is lying." (Janet Maslin, The New York Times)

"There are echoes of Leopold and Loeb and Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, but the language and landscape are unmistakably French’s, as is the way she excavates the past to illuminate the present." (O Magazine)

Excellent mystery!!

I love the Dublin Murder Squad series, and how each book brings to life one character from the previous book. However, the books don't need to be read in order for each story to come alive. Great narration made this a real listening treat!

A literary adventure.

This story captures adolescence with familiarity and mystery. Characters well-drawn. Intriguing story keeps you wanting to know more. Great!

whining Irish teenage girls

What did you like best about The Secret Place? What did you like least?

The character of MackyI liked least the whinging teenage girl voices. sounding like, in the words of the book"bad actors doing an American accent"

If you’ve listened to books by Tana French before, how does this one compare?

Nowhere near as good, not even close

Would you be willing to try another one of Stephen Hogan and Lara Hutchinson ’s performances?

Stephen Hogan- Yes
Lara Hutchinson- not this side of hell

Could you see The Secret Place being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

I can see it being made into a bad TV movie

Any additional comments?

way below par for an author I had enjoyed in the past.

Not the best, but --

I'm a huge fan of Tana French, but this wasn't my favorite. I think the girls' story could have been cut by half to have a tighter narrative. I disagree about the woman narrator -- I thought she was fine and had a thankless task in doing the voices of eight teenage girls. I'm hoping her next will be up to the level of Faithful Place (my favorite).

Engrossing, masterful storytelling!

From the first book, I have been hooked this author. She has a way of telling a story that slowly, almost imperceptibly pulls you in until you don't want to leave. Each book seems to build on the one before even though each story and each main detective is very different. I love the look she gives us inside the internal life of each of her characters. She switches effortlessly between the mind of complicated teenage girls, to the minds of the detectives, building up to a surprising ending. The narrators perfectly complemented the story. If you are looking for something that will draw you in and stay with you after it's finished then please do not pass this up!

Never sending my kids to Boarding School

You've seen variations of the plot before but the author does such a good job unfolding everything and hopping between time zones and characters that by the end you can't help but feel heartbroken and exhilerated at the same time. Beautiful imagery too. Everything just comes alive. Conway and Moran can be a hot mess but listening to them bounce off each other is gold. I listened to Trespasser first, so this made a good double feature.

Great Plot! Great Narrator!

This is well worth your time. A wonderful marriage of story and storyteller! I could say more but why?

love it

This book is my favorite of the series, possibly tied with Faithful Place. Great story.

Love the author, this story, not so much

I’m practically binging Tana French. I enjoy the way she writes, weaving characters from the squad into different stories in order to spotlight each of them. I wanted to like this book, too.

Ms French split the tale into two perspectives: the students at a girls school, and the detectives investigation a murder. Getting some back story on two of the Murder D’s is interesting. The investigative steps were intriguing. The play between the two quite different detectives also kept me listening.

I could not, however, get through the girls at the school parts of the novel. While written well, I found myself tuning out during the chapters told from their perspective. I’m sure it’s just me and a lack of interest in “mean girls” in high school, but it caused me to quit the book after only a few chapters. I saw hours and hours remained and I cringed at the thought of more “oh my god’s” and “totes ma goats.” I will move on to another Dublin Murder to keep me going during long trail runs.

While the book is probably another good listen, this story missed the mark for me.

Captivating

Loved it. On the edge the whole read. Tana French is the best at these.