The Secret Place cover art

The Secret Place

Dublin Murder Squad: 5

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The Secret Place

By: Tana French
Narrated by: Lara Hutchinson, Stephen Hogan
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About this listen

 'A gripping read for those still pining for GONE GIRL' Elle's top five beach reads

The photo shows a boy who was murdered a year ago.
The caption says, 'I KNOW WHO KILLED HIM'.

Detective Stephen Moran hasn't seen Holly Mackey since she was a nine-year-old witness to the events of Faithful Place. Now she's sixteen and she's shown up outside his squad room, with a photograph and a story.

Even in her exclusive boarding school, in the graceful golden world that Stephen has always longed for, bad things happen and people have secrets. The previous year, Christopher Harper, from the neighbouring boys' school, was found murdered on the grounds. And today, in the Secret Place - the school noticeboard where girls can pin up their secrets anonymously - Holly found the card.

Solving this case could take Stephen onto the Murder squad. But to get it solved, he will have to work with Detective Antoinette Conway - tough, prickly, an outsider, everything Stephen doesn't want in a partner. And he will have to find a way into the strange, charged, mysterious world that Holly and her three closest friends inhabit and disentangle the truth from their knot of secrets, even as he starts to suspect that the truth might be something he doesn't want to hear.

From the multi-award-winning author of Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller In the Woods, The Secret Place is a searing novel of psychological suspense.

(P)2014 Hodder & Stoughton©2014 Tana French Crime Fiction Mystery Suspense Thriller & Suspense Crime Fiction

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Critic reviews

An absolutely mesmerizing read (Gillian Flynn, author of GONE GIRL)
I've been enthusiastically telling everyone who will listen to read Tana French (Harlan Coben)
The thing Tana French does better than almost any living crime writer is create suspense. She makes you feel as if you're the detective, and your whole future career, not to mention your mental equilibrium, depends upon working out the solution to the puzzle. The Secret Place is another nail-biting ordeal of mysteriousness that will have readers frantically turning pages in their eagerness to discover the truth (Sophie Hannah, bestselling author of The Carrier)
A gripping read for those still pining for Gone Girl
A wonderfully tender and savage thriller about loyalty, teenage friendship and first loves. Gripping and ingenious (Kate Mosse, bestselling author of Labyrinth)
She's a seriously talented writer and I love her Dublin Murder Squad series. I've been eagerly awaiting this one for ages. (Stephanie Merritt)
It's terrific - terrifying, amazing, and the prose is incandescent (Stephen King, No. 1 bestselling author)
All stars
Most relevant
After some of the reviews I was a little worried about this one but I have thoroughly enjoyed the book. I find that Tana French is going from strength to strength with her first books being alright but not really standing out from the crowd but Broken Harbour and The Secret Place are excellent. I love the description in this, there's just enough to paint a picture, very much show, not tell, and not so much as to overdo it. There is quality in her writing, such as one finds in good, gritty poetry. The story is good and the narration spot on. There was some criticism of the language used, too much "like" and "Irishisms" but that's how people talk in Dublin so is perfectly realistic. The two main detective characters were very well rendered and the girls totally believable. I didn't find the story too long because the writing has sufficient quality to be able to savour that length, it's not all about how fast you can get to the end.

A great read

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I was looking forward to listening to this book but the minute I stared I was bored. I didn't really care who killed Chris.
The narration was a bit slow and flat.
There a couple of interesting twists but overall the story is pretty predictable, the characters are boring.
Perhaps it's more of a YA novel.

I just did not care

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Tana shows great insight into the sociology of high school girls as the detectives manipulate and are manipulated in their efforts to uncover the murderer of a high school boy.
Well narrated, but those accents! I gave up rewinding and rewinding and playing at half speed in dozens of places in a vain attempt to catch what they said, especially Lara with her over-emphasised aitches. That really spoilt an otherwise excellent listen.

Unusual but good. Ghastly accents.

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Beautifully written, highly entertaining, characters come alive through the skills of two excellent narrators. Highly recommended..

The Secret Place

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Yet another amazing book by Tara French. Very clever to keep your interest right to the last minute, literally. Wonderful description and attention to detail draws you right into the girls world and paints a vivid picture of their lives.

Superb

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