Trespasser (French) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
One of Ms. French's great strengths has always been the keen insight with which she endows her characters and the coy distance at which she keeps them from the reader. Her books would be mysterious even if they didn't involve outright murders. The people in them keep secrets, imperceptibly change, create facades, hide motives and, as she illustrated so brilliantly in Faithful Place, even fool their own families about matters of life or death for decades. That remains the most stunning of her books, but this new one is a tour de force, too…The Trespasser is brisk but not breathless. It would be a pity if Ms. French raced through such beautifully conceived and executed material…When you read Ms. French—and she has become required reading for anyone who appreciates tough, unflinching intelligence and ingenious plotting—make only one assumption: All of your initial assumptions are wrong. This author drops just enough breadcrumbs through her book to create trails that lead away from whatever the detectives' conventional wisdom happens to be, and she doesn't follow up on them until she's good and ready.
Janet Maslin - New York Times


It has become increasingly clear that U.S.-born, Dublin-based Tana French is the most interesting, most important crime novelist to emerge in the past 10 years. Now, with the publication of her sixth novel, The Trespasser, it’s time to recognize that French’s work renders absurd the lingering distinction between genre and literary fiction—the notion that although crime novels might be better plotted and more readable, only literary fiction, supposedly blessed with superior writing, characterizations and intellectual firepower, deserves the respect of serious readers.
Patrick Anderson - Washington Post


There’s more than a little of the noir about Tana French’s latest, The Trespasser. Set, like her previous thrillers, among the detectives of Dublin’s murder squad, perhaps it (hard-)boils down to the fact that her protagonist this time, detective Antoinette Conway, manages to fizz with contempt for the world around her, bristle with toughness and sink regularly into poetic gloom all at the same time.
Alison Flood - Guardian (UK)


There's nothing standard about French's approach to crime fiction, which plays the form much like a jazz musician improvising on a standard. Even when the outlines of the mystery seem familiar…she finds a way to get at enriching themes and powerful emotional truths in fresh and surprising ways.
Chicago Tribune
 

As in all of the author's work, meaning lurks beneath every quip and glance. French not only spins a twisty cop tale, she also encases it in meticulous prose, creating a read that is as elegant as it is dark.
Associated Press


French is less adept than usual, however, in weaving in her main characters’ backstories. The underlying themes of loyalty and how far one should go to protect a person are what makes this entry worthy of French’s prodigious talents, though Conway isn’t her best conduit.
Publishers Weekly


(Starred review.)  French's interconnected first-person novels easily stand alone, but consuming them in order gives readers the pleasure of seeing characters they've come to know through others' eyes.  [For] readers who crave tightly plotted, character-driven crime fiction.  —Stephanie Klose
Library Journal


[T]he investigation is impeded by their own murder squad. But why? It's not just because the guys think Conway has a stick up you know where. Respect is owed to French for making her interrogation scenes good enough to really spike your blood pressure, but the magic of previous installments is missing.
Kirkus Reviews