A bit of a self-involved aside prior to writing the review: because of my small time literary pretensions, and as the daughter of a man who devours detective novels like nobody's business, I have historically not fancied myself someone who goes for the crime novel/detective novel/thriller. I mean, perhaps I devoured The da Vinci Code and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo--but that doesn't mean anything, does it?

I was the literary equivalent of someone actively pursuing their first homosexual affair while still telling their partner, "But I AM straight." That is, until I met Tana French. And Tana French, she turned me out.

Tana French is SUCH a good writer that even when there's implausibility in her plot--and this novel is a perfect example, as were both In the Woods and The Secret Place, both of which feature slight illogicalities (I think I invented a word?) that you notice but don't really hold against her--that you have to momentarily put the book down and ask yourself, "Could this ever happen?" No. It could not. But I was so anxious to find out what had happened--in a terrible way, where I wanted to finish the novel to get the terrifying final reveal out of the way--that I think French must be doing something right.